Inches to Roman Feet (in to pes)

1 inch equals 0.08581081081 Roman feet (rounded).

1 inch = 0.08581081081 Roman feet

How to convert inches to Roman feet

To convert inches to Roman feet, multiply the number of inches by 0.08581081081. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply Roman feet by 11.65354331 (rounded).

Roman feet = inches × 0.08581081081

Example: 10 inches = 0.8581081081 Roman feet.

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

About these units

Inch (in)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

1/12 of a foot. Defined as exactly 25.4 millimeters since 1959, when the US and Commonwealth countries agreed a common international inch.

Latin uncia, meaning one-twelfth, is the root of both inch and ounce, and it passed into Old English as ynce. Roman measurers divided their foot into twelve unciae, and the English inch kept that twelfth. After 1066 an inch was reckoned as three barleycorns, and a 1324 statute attributed to Edward II spelled out the definition as three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end lengthwise. For centuries the inch was simply a twelfth of a foot, or a thirty-sixth of a yard, and the US and UK each kept their own copy of the standard yard.

Those copies differed slightly until the 1959 international agreement fixed the yard at exactly 0.9144 meter, which made the inch exactly 25.4 millimeters. The US adopted it in 1959 and the UK ratified it in 1963, effective 1964. Today the inch is still the customary unit in the United States and Canada, and the UK keeps it on road signs. Worldwide it also names display diagonals, wheel rims, tire codes and pipe sizes.

1 inch = 0.0254 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Inch; Wikipedia: Yard; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

Roman Foot (pes)

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

The basic Roman unit of length, about 29.6 cm (11.65 in). Surviving rulers vary by a few millimeters, so values differ slightly between sources.

Latin pes, the word for the human foot, named the basic length of Roman building, surveying and road making. The accepted modern value is about 296 mm, and the figure used here is 296 mm. Surviving evidence does not agree to the millimeter. In 1639 the English scholar John Greaves compared monuments and objects in Rome and got 295 mm from a statue of Cossutius, 296 mm from the tomb of Statilius, and 301 mm from a congius vessel of Vespasian. William Smith later gave about 295.9 mm.

The foot could be divided into 12 unciae, or inches, or into 16 digiti, or fingers, a split borrowed from the Greek pous. Larger units were built from it, including the cubit at one and a half feet, the pace at five feet and the mile at 5,000 feet. A longer provincial foot, the pes Drusianus, measured roughly 333 to 335 mm. The English foot, about 304.8 mm, is close to the Roman one but about 3 percent longer.

1 Roman foot = 0.296 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Pes (unit); Wikipedia: Ancient Roman units of measurement

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