Every unit is stored as a fixed multiplier relative to one meter — the SI base unit for length. When you enter a value, the converter first translates it into meters, then converts that meter value into your chosen target unit.
This two-step approach means you only need one conversion chain, not a table of every possible unit pair. It also keeps rounding errors minimal, since the math happens at full floating-point precision internally.
The conversion factors used:
- 1 kilometer = 1,000 meters
- 1 mile = 1,609.344 meters (exact, by international definition)
- 1 foot = 0.3048 meters (exact)
- 1 inch = 0.0254 meters (exact)
- 1 yard = 0.9144 meters (exact)
- 1 centimeter = 0.01 meters
The mile, foot, inch, and yard values are exact — not approximations. They were fixed by international agreement in 1959, which is why you'll sometimes see very long decimals when converting to or from miles.
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