Feet to Greek Feet (ft to pous)

1 foot equals 0.9525 Greek feet exactly.

1 foot = 0.9525 Greek feet

How to convert feet to Greek feet

To convert feet to Greek feet, multiply the number of feet by 0.9525. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply Greek feet by 1.049868766 (rounded).

Greek feet = feet × 0.9525

Example: 10 feet = 9.525 Greek feet.

Approximate value. Standards for the Greek foot (Olympic) varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About these units

Foot (ft)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

12 inches. Defined as exactly 0.3048 meters. Still the standard unit for height, altitude in aviation and room dimensions in the US and UK.

Human anatomy supplied the idea: an adult foot is roughly 15 percent of body height. Ancient cultures turned that into standards, but not the same one. The Greek pous was about 302 mm, the standard Roman pes about 295.7 mm, and a Harappan foot of about 335 mm has been reported from the Indus Valley. Historically, a foot fell somewhere between about 250 and 335 mm. Charlemagne tried to standardize units around 790 with little lasting success, and in 1593 English law fixed the statute mile at 5,280 feet.

The modern foot dates from the 1959 International Yard and Pound Agreement, which defined the yard as exactly 0.9144 meter and so the foot as exactly 0.3048 meter; the UK adopted it on 1 January 1964. The US survey foot, defined in 1893 as 1200/3937 meter, was deprecated on 31 December 2022. Feet remain in everyday use for height and rooms in the US, and ISO shipping containers are defined in them. Aviation altitudes use them too: flight level 330 means 33,000 feet.

1 foot = 0.3048 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Foot (unit); Wikipedia: Mile; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

Greek Foot (Olympic) (pous)

Ancient GreekHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

One 600th of the Olympic stadion, about 32.0 cm. Greek feet differed by city; the Attic foot was nearer 29.6 cm and the Aeginetan about 33.3 cm.

Greek pous simply means foot, and the plural is podes. Every city-state kept its own foot, so the word never named a single length. Aegina used a foot of about 333 mm, Athens one of about 296 mm, and a general-purpose table gives 308.2 mm. The value used here, roughly 32.0 cm, is the Olympic foot, which is derived by dividing a stadion of about 192 m by 600.

That makes the Olympic foot a reconstruction and not a measured object, and it moves with the stadion figure chosen. Scholars have also proposed stadia near 157 m, 185 m, 196 m and 209 m, implying feet from about 26 to 35 cm. Within a Greek system the foot divided into 16 daktyloi, or fingers, and 100 feet made a plethron, a little over 30 m in the standard table. A foot of about 32 cm is close to the modern English foot of 30.48 cm, only a little longer.

1 Greek foot (Olympic) = 0.32 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Ancient Greek units of measurement; Wikipedia: Stadion (unit)

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