Yards to Roman Inches (yd to uncia)

1 yard equals 37.17073171 Roman inches (rounded).

1 yard = 37.17073171 Roman inches

How to convert yards to Roman inches

To convert yards to Roman inches, multiply the number of yards by 37.17073171. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply Roman inches by 0.02690288714 (rounded).

Roman inches = yards × 37.17073171

Example: 10 yards = 371.7073171 Roman inches.

Approximate value. Standards for the Roman inch (uncia) 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

Roman Inch (uncia) (uncia)

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

One twelfth of a Roman foot, about 2.46 cm. Its name, uncia, is the root of the English words 'inch' and 'ounce'.

Twelve of these made up a Roman foot, and that fraction is the whole meaning of the name: uncia is Latin for a twelfth. The same word was applied to weight, where it gave the ounce as a twelfth of the Roman pound. Because the foot is about 296 mm, the uncia works out to roughly 24.6 mm, the value Wikipedia gives, though that article notes the figure lacks a citation. Any difference in the foot carries straight through to its inch.

Latin also had pollex, meaning thumb, as a synonym for the length. Old English borrowed uncia as ynce, and a regular sound change turned it into the modern word inch, which is a cousin of ounce. The English inch kept the idea of a twelfth of a foot but was later fixed by international agreement at exactly 25.4 mm, so it is about 3 percent larger than the Roman original.

1 Roman inch (uncia) = 0.0246 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Roman inch; Wikipedia: Inch; Wikipedia: Ancient Roman units of measurement

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