Convert between millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers, inches, feet, yards, miles and nautical miles.
All units are converted via meters as a common denominator: the value is multiplied by the unit's meter factor, then divided by the target unit's meter factor.
A statute mile is 1,609.344 meters and is used for road distances in, among other places, the US and UK. A nautical mile is 1,852 meters and is used in sea and air navigation, based on one minute of arc along the Earth's latitude.
Because imperial/US customary units historically developed independently of the metric system, and were only officially defined in relation to the meter in 1959 (1 inch = exactly 2.54 cm).
There are 5,280 feet in a mile. Since 1 foot is exactly 0.3048 meters, a mile (1,609.344 meters) works out to exactly 5,280 feet.