Jō to Inches (jō to in)

1 jō equals 119.3032689 inches (rounded).

1 jō = 119.3032689 inches

How to convert jō to inches

To convert jō to inches, multiply the number of jō by 119.3032689. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply inches by 0.008382.

inches = jō × 119.3032689

Example: 10 jō = 1,193.032689 inches.

About these units

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)

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

Related conversions

See all length units.