Varas to Feet (vara to ft)

1 vara (Castilian) equals 2.742454068 feet (rounded).

1 vara (Castilian) = 2.742454068 feet

How to convert varas to feet

To convert varas to feet, multiply the number of varas by 2.742454068. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply feet by 0.3646369183 (rounded).

feet = varas × 2.742454068

Example: 10 varas = 27.42454068 feet.

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

About these units

Vara (Castilian) (vara)

Spanish & PortugueseHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

The Castilian vara, about 83.59 cm (3 pies). Regional varas differed; the Texas vara of 33⅓ inches (84.67 cm) is still found in old land grants.

Vara means rod or staff. The Texas State Historical Association traces the word to a Latin term for a long, straight branch, which became a lance and then the staff of office carried by mayors and judges. Because that staff was used for checking cloth and land, the name passed to the measuring stick and then to the unit itself.

Across Spain the vara varied from city to city, from about 0.77 m in Huesca to roughly 1.56 m in Barcelona. The Castilian standard, fixed by law in 1801 at three pies, is about 835.9 mm, and the figure used here is 0.8359 m. The pie of about 278.6 mm was the base, with the paso equal to five pies and the league defined as 6,666 and two thirds varas.

Spanish settlers carried the unit overseas. California commonly treated the vara as 33 inches, Argentina used about 866 mm, and Texas defined it as 33 and one third inches, or 846.67 mm. Land grants in Texas were surveyed in varas, so deeds from the nineteenth and even the twentieth century still quote them. A vara is a little shorter than a modern yard.

1 vara (Castilian) = 0.8359 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Vara (unit); Texas State Historical Association: Vara; Wikipedia: Spanish customary 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

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