Given units of measure in one system, convert units to the other system.

The audiovisual industry exists all around the world. Likewise, most areas of the world use two common systems: metric and U.S. Customary. Therefore, you need to be able to convert from one system to another to maintain accuracy. Converting measurements from one system begins with establishing base units of measure.

The common base units for Metric are:

meter (m)
centimeter (cm)
millimeter (mm)

The common base units for U.S. customary are:

foot (ft)
inch (in)

Units of Distance Measurement Table

To perform the conversion from one system to another, use the following table.

To use the table, begin in the left hand column and locate the unit of measure you are going to convert from. Next, follow straight across the row to the middle column for the desired unit of measure (e.g., from feet to meters). Finally, locate the conversion factor (e.g., 0.3048).

Convert from	To	Multiply by
meters (m)	feet (ft)	3.28084
centimeters (cm)	inches (in)	0.3937008
millimeters (mm)	inches (in)	0.03937008
feet (ft)	meters (m)	0.3048
inches (in)	centimeters (cm)	2.54
inches(in)	millimeters (mm)	25.4

While proper math rules state that any rounding should be delayed until the final step to avoid rounding errors, for the purposes of this course, it is not always necessary to use a multiplier out to the hundred-millionth. For example, many times 3.28084 is rounded off to 3.28 while 0.03937008 is rounded off to 0.03937.

Quick Tip: U.S. Customary/Metric Distance Conversions

In practice, you only need one ratio to perform conversions between U.S. Customary and metric distance measurements:

1 inch = 25.4 mm

Change meters to millimeters or feet to inches, and use the ratio above to convert. Convert the result from inches to feet or millimeters to meters as needed.