Metric to Imperial Distance Conversion Tables For Field Events
Posted by Jimmie R. Markham | August 31, 2008
Do you ever envy those TV announcers who can tell you an athlete’s metric mark in a field event and then effortlessly rattle off its equivalent in feet, inches & fractions? How do they do it? Either a) they’re computational geniuses, or b) they have a laptop on which they’ve loaded a website that has an online calculator or c) they have a table of some kind.
I can’t help you with "a", but here’s b) the online calculator. I’ve also put together c) a conversion table in PDF format for when you have to travel to a meet that doesn’t offer any internet connectivity. (I know, I know. Why couldn’t I have done this at the beginning of the season instead of with one week left? Just think, you’ll be ready to go as soon as practices for the indoor season begin! 
)
In order to make it fit on one page, I’m requiring you to do some minor addition. It was either that, or have you print a sixty-page document. I’ve got some instructions for you after the jump.
Here’s how it works:
On the left table you’ll find the imperial equivalents of all the whole-meter distances. On the middle table you’ll find the imperial conversions for metric distances 0.01 to 0.99. Simply add the feet, inches and 100ths of inches from the left table to the feet, inches and 100ths of inches from the middle table. Then take the resulting imperial measurement and compare the 100ths of an inch from that measurement to the decimal to fraction table on the right hand side.
For example, say you want to convert Yelena Isinbayeva’s recent world record of 5.05m to feet, inches and fractions of an inch. First you take the imperial equivalent of the whole-meter distance from the left table (5.00m equals 16′- 4.85") then add it to the imperial equivalent of the less-than-whole-meter distance from the middle table (0.05m equals 1.97"). When you add 16′ - 4.85" to 1.97" you get 16′ - 6.83". Take the 100th of an inch portion of your total (0.83") and compare it to the decimal to fraction table on the right side. The closest decimal is 0.84 and its equivalent fraction is 27/32. Now you can tell people that Isinbayeva’s world record is 16′ - 6 27/32". Viola! Not only that, but you’ll avoid becoming senile in your old age by keeping your mind sharp with the simple mental arithmetic I’m forcing you to do!
Note: this is the first draft of an unofficial document. It is not intended for official use in any meet. It is strictly intended for private use to help American track & field fans understand field events better. Please feel free to offer any suggestions on how I can improve this document, especially if I have made any critical errors. Happy converting!