What are the “official” conversions that are used by NGS to convert 1) meters to inches, and 2) meters to feet?
First, remember this rule: There is only one meter, BUT, there are two types of feet. The two types of feet are: 1. The U.S. Survey Foot It is defined as: 1 meter = 39.37 inches. If you divide 39.37 by 12 (12 inches per foot), you get the conversion factor: 1 meter = 3.280833333… U.S. Survey Feet. 2. The International Foot It is defined as: 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters. If you convert this to meters and feet, you get the conversion factor: 1 International Foot = 0.3048 meters. These two conversion factors produce results that differ by 2 parts per million; hence for most practical work it does not make any difference to the average surveyor which one is used since they usually do not encounter distances this large. For example, converting a distance of 304,800 meters (about 1,000,000 feet) to feet using the two conversion factors, these are the results: 304,800 meters = 999,998.000 U.S. Survey Feet 304,800 meters = 1,000,000.000 International Feet A difference of 2 feet in 1 million fee
