Yards to Greek Feet (yd to pous)

1 yard equals 2.8575 Greek feet exactly.

1 yard = 2.8575 Greek feet

How to convert yards to Greek feet

To convert yards to Greek feet, multiply the number of yards by 2.8575. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply Greek feet by 0.3499562555 (rounded).

Greek feet = yards × 2.8575

Example: 10 yards = 28.575 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

Yard (yd)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

3 feet or 36 inches, exactly 0.9144 meters. Used for sports fields, fabric and short distances in the US and UK.

Yard descends from the Old English gerd or gyrd, meaning a branch, stave or measuring rod. It first appears in the late seventh-century laws of Ine of Wessex, though there it names a tax unit, the yardland. Around 959 to 963 King Edgar ordered that the measure held at Winchester be used throughout his realm, the earliest record of a prototype. A story that Henry I fixed the yard as the distance from his nose to his thumb is later folklore, and the true origin, whether pace, cubit or waist, remains speculative.

Britain defined the Imperial Standard Yard in 1824 as the distance between two marks on a brass rod at 62 degrees Fahrenheit. A fire in 1834 damaged the standard, a replacement was made in 1845, and the Weights and Measures Act 1855 recognized it. The 1959 international agreement then fixed the yard at exactly 0.9144 meter. Today it measures American and Canadian football fields, association football pitches and cricket pitches, appears on UK road signs for short distances, and is still used to sell fabric in the US and UK.

1 yard = 0.9144 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Yard; Wikipedia: Inch; 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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