Yards to Micrometers (yd to µm)

1 yard equals 914,400 micrometers exactly.

1 yard = 914,400 micrometers

How to convert yards to micrometers

To convert yards to micrometers, multiply the number of yards by 914,400. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply micrometers by 0.000001093613298 (rounded).

micrometers = yards × 914,400

Example: 10 yards = 9,144,000 micrometers.

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

Micrometer (µm)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One millionth of a meter, also called a micron. Typical bacteria are a few micrometers long; a human hair is roughly 70 µm thick.

Two names, micron and micrometer, have shared this unit for more than a century. The prefix micro- was adopted in 1873 alongside the CGS system, and in 1879 the term micron and the symbol μ were officially accepted for the micrometer when used on its own. That created a clash once SI came along: μ was also the symbol for the prefix micro-. The 13th CGPM revoked micron and its symbol in 1967 to 1968, leaving micrometer and μm as the official name and symbol, though micron lives on in everyday speech.

A micrometer is a thousandth of a millimeter, and it is the natural scale for biology and filtration. A typical red blood cell is 6 to 8 μm across, a bacterium is 1 to 10 μm long, and a fog droplet is around 10 μm. Human hair ranges from about 17 to 181 μm in diameter, and paper is 70 to 180 μm thick. Infrared radiation is measured in micrometers of wavelength, and wool is graded by fibre width. Some American writers keep micron because micrometer also names the caliper-style measuring tool.

1 micrometer = 0.000001 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Micrometre; Wikipedia: Metric prefix

Related conversions

See all length units.