Feet to Jō (ft to jō)

1 foot equals 0.100584 jō exactly.

1 foot = 0.100584 jō

How to convert feet to jō

To convert feet to jō, multiply the number of feet by 0.100584. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply jō by 9.941939076 (rounded).

jō = feet × 0.100584

Example: 10 feet = 1.00584 jō.

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

Jō (jō)

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Ten shaku, exactly 100/33 meter (about 3.03 m).

Jo, written with the character for a tall person or elder, is the largest of the everyday shaku multiples, standing at ten shaku. Do not confuse it with the other jo, the counter for tatami mats, which describes floor area rather than length.

With the shaku fixed at 10/33 meter by Japan's 1891 law, one jo comes to exactly 100/33 meter, about 3.03 meters or 9.94 feet. Earlier values shifted with the shaku, which ranged from roughly 30.2 to 30.3 centimeters, so premodern figures in jo are good only to within a centimeter or two per shaku.

It sits between the ken, at six shaku, and the chō, at 360 shaku. Its use outside tradition is limited. Modern building plans and trade measures use meters, so the jo appears mainly in historical texts, descriptions of temples and in discussion of the older measuring system.

1 jō = 3.03030303 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement; Japanese Wikipedia: Shakkanho (尺貫法); Wikipedia: Shaku (unit)

Related conversions

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