Example: What Is the Metric Equivalent of Five Feet?

• 1). Write down the length you intend to convert. For the current example, this appears as "5 ft," representative of the English length of five feet.
  
  
• 2). Reference the appropriate conversion factor from a scientific textbook or a unit conversion website. The Washington State Department of Transportation hosts a useful reference on standard to metric conversion factors, which includes the length metric of 0.3048 meters per foot.
  
  
• 3). Use the calculator to multiply the original length -- in this case, 5 ft -- by the appropriate conversion factor. The desired end unit in the current example is a meter, so the referenced metric may be used in its originally written form of 0.3048 m/ft -- note that the meter unit appears on top and that the feet in both factors will cancel one another out in the conversion. Written out, this operation appears as (5 ft)(0.3048 m/ft) = 1.52 m.