About

Converting Imperial length to Metric is a daily requirement in global industries ranging from healthcare to interior design. While meters are standard for buildings, the Centimeter (cm) is the preferred unit for human height, textile cutting, and furniture specifications in most of the world. This tool translates Feet (ft) directly to Centimeters. Accurate height conversion is particularly critical in medical records and ergonomic assessments where a discrepancy of a few centimeters can alter body mass index (BMI) calculations or equipment fittings.

For user convenience, this tool processes standard decimal feet. For measuring height, "Feet and Inches" (e.g., 5" 11") is the colloquial standard; this tool provides a mode to handle that input structure seamlesssly, ensuring you don't need to manually calculate that 11 inches is 0.916 feet before converting.

Formulas

The core conversion factor converts one foot to exactly 30.48 centimeters.

L_cm = L_ft × 30.48

When converting height given in Feet and Inches:

L_cm = [ft × 30.48] + [in × 2.54]

Reference Data

Decimal Feet	Feet & Inches	Centimeters (cm)	Comparison
1.0	1′ 0″	30.48	Standard ruler
3.0	3′ 0″	91.44	Yard stick approx.
5.0	5′ 0″	152.40	Short adult height
5.25	5′ 3″	160.02	Global avg female height
5.5	5′ 6″	167.64	~168 cm
5.75	5′ 9″	175.26	Global avg male height
6.0	6′ 0″	182.88	Tall adult height
6.56	6′ 6.7″	200.00	Doorway height
10.0	10′ 0″	304.80	Basketball hoop

Frequently Asked Questions

6 feet converts exactly to 182.88 cm. In many medical or ID contexts, this is often rounded to 183 cm.

No. This is a common error. 5.5 feet is 5 and a half feet, which equals 5 feet 6 inches. 5 feet 5 inches would be approximately 5.42 decimal feet. Use the "Feet & Inches" mode in this tool to avoid this confusion.

The calculation uses the exact definition. However, for practical purposes, the output is displayed to two decimal places. For rough estimates, rounding to the nearest whole number (integer) is common in clothing and height measurements.

Centimeters provide a more convenient integer scale for human height (e.g., 175 cm vs 1.75 m). It avoids decimal points in speech and writing, which reduces transcription errors in medical databases.