Convert MM to Inches

Much to the chagrin of the rest of the world, there exist two systems of measurement, the imperial system and the metric system. While most countries decidedly follow one of these systems only, problems crop up when people need to convert the imperial units to metric or vice versa. Often you must have noticed when you're sitting in one country which has taught you to use the metric system and you run a search and find something on the internet, the measurements of which are given in the imperial system. Gets your goat doesn't it?

relation Between MM, Inches and Feet

MM as we all know is short for millimeter which was till not so long ago the smallest unit to measure lengths and distances, till the micro and nano-units came along. Meter (or meter, in some countries) is the standard unit for measuring lengths, but since some lengths started becoming too long or too short, we started coming up with prefixes to the meter such as centi-, deci-, deca-, kilo- etc. Now the prefix milli- as we all know stands either for 1000 or 1000th depending on the context (remember 'millipede' - 1000 legs?). In this case we take millimeter to be a 1000th part of a meter.

Thus,

1mm = ¹/₁₀₀₀ meter and
1000mm = 1 meter

Inches, on the other hand, is the second smallest unit of measuring length in the imperial system (after the thou) A foot is the third smallest unit in the system. The imperial system was supposedly invented in UK and along with colonization spread to the rest of the Commonwealth countries such as US, Australia, Canada etc. While the metric system is supposedly used by a lot more countries and a lot more people, the imperial system has its own distinct fan base.

I particularly prefer the metric system as the relation between two units is standard. All you need to do is to add a zero between the original number at the decimal point (this works on both sides of the decimal point, mind you) and you have your next higher or lower unit. And besides, I grew up with the metric system around me, hence I find myself more at ease with it.

Converting MM to Inches and Feet

Right, so you'll find a lot of calculators all over the net, but suppose you find yourself in a situation where you need to convert mm to inches but you don't have an Internet connection at hand? Suppose you're at a test and the rules of the test don't allow you to use a computer, what do you do?

A simple formula would come in pretty handy wouldn't it? Yes it would.

1 mm = 0.0393700787 inches

Since this one looks a bit too long, here's putting it simply,

1 mm = 0.0394 inches

Conversely,

1 inch = 25.4 mm

And,

1 mm = 0.0032808399 ft

Simplifying it a bit

1 mm = 0.0033 ft

Conversely,

1 foot = 304.8 mm

So if you want to convert mm to inches or to feet, all you have to do is multiply the above numbers to the mm value to get the inches or feet measurement. It is important that you know these basic conversions as it may be an important part of your maths homework sum or a real mathematical problem as well.