A yard (yd) is a US customary unit of length equal to 3 feet or 36 inches. It is a little shorter than a meter: 1 yard is exactly 0.9144 meter. Yards measure fabric, rooms, gardens and the length of a football field, which is 100 yards between the goal lines.
One yard is 3 feet or 36 inches, a little less than a meter. Multiply by 3 to go from yards to feet; divide by 3 to go back.
Formal definition and notation
The international yard is defined as exactly 0.9144 meter, so 1 yard = 91.44 centimeters. In the US customary system, 1 yard = 3 feet = 36 inches, and 1,760 yards = 1 mile. Area and volume use squared and cubed yards: 1 square yard = 9 square feet and 1 cubic yard = 27 cubic feet.
1 yard = 0.9144 meter exactly, so a meter is about 1.09 yards.
An American football field is 100 yards from goal line to goal line, which is 300 feet.
Square yards and cubic yards grow faster than yards: 1 square yard = 9 square feet and 1 cubic yard = 27 cubic feet.
Where the name comes from. Since 1959 the United States has defined the yard as exactly 0.9144 meter, which ties the foot and inch to the metric system as well (NIST Handbook 44).
Yard conversions
Yard conversions
1 yd = 3 ft = 36 in
yd to ft
multiply by 3
ft to yd
divide by 3
yd to in
multiply by 36
yd to m
multiply by 0.9144
For area, the factor is squared: 1 yd2 = 3 × 3 = 9 ft2, not 3.
Try it: yards and feet
Interactive
Each row keeps the ratio 1 yard to 3 feet. Read across to convert, or change the numbers per group to build other unit tables, such as 1 foot to 12 inches.
This interactive needs JavaScript. The worked examples below show the same ideas step by step.
Yard examples, step by step
Example 1: Yards to feet
Warm-up
A hallway is 8 yards long. How many feet is that?
A foot is smaller than a yard, so multiply.
8 × 3 = 24.
Answer: The hallway is 24 feet long.
Example 2: Inches to yards and feet
Core
A piece of fabric is 100 inches long. Write its length in yards, feet and inches.
1 yard = 36 inches. 100 ÷ 36 = 2remainder 28, so 2 yards and 28 inches.
28 inches = 2 feet 4 inches, because 2 × 12 = 24 and 28 − 24 = 4.
Check: 72 + 24 + 4 = 100 inches.
Answer: The fabric is 2 yards 2 feet 4 inches long.
Example 3: Square yards for carpet
Test-style
A room is 15 feet long and 12 feet wide. Carpet is sold by the square yard. How many square yards of carpet cover the floor?
Change each side to yards: 15 ÷ 3 = 5 yd and 12 ÷ 3 = 4 yd.
Area = 5 × 4 = 20 square yards.
Check in feet: 15 × 12 = 180 square feet, and 180 ÷ 9 = 20.
Answer: The room needs 20 square yards of carpet.
Common mistakes
✗ MistakeDividing when changing yards to feet: 6 yd = 2 ft.
✓ InsteadMultiply: 6 yd = 6 × 3 = 18 ft.
A foot is smaller than a yard, so the same length takes more feet. Smaller unit, bigger number.
A meter is the metric base unit, 100 cm. A yard is a customary unit, 91.44 cm, slightly shorter.
Yardvs.Foot
A foot is 12 inches, one third of a yard. 9 feet = 3 yards.
Yardvs.Square yard
A square yard measures area (a 1 yd by 1 yd square = 9 square feet); a yard measures length.
Quick check: 3 questions
Question 1 of 3
How many inches are in 2 yards?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. 1 yard = 36 inches, so 2 × 36 = 72 inches. 24 is 2 feet in inches, 6 is the number of feet, and 48 is 4 feet.
Question 2 of 3
A rope is 21 feet long. How long is it in yards?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Feet to yards: divide by 3. 21 ÷ 3 = 7 yards. 63 multiplies instead of dividing, 18 subtracts 3, and 252 converts to inches.
Question 3 of 3
How many square feet are in 4 square yards?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. 1 square yard = 9 square feet, so 4 × 9 = 36 square feet. 12 uses the length factor 3 instead of 9, 16 squares the 4, and 144 is the square inches in 1 square foot.
Yard: frequently asked questions
How many feet are in a yard?
There are exactly 3 feet in 1 yard, and 36 inches. So to change yards to feet, multiply by 3 (5 yards = 15 feet), and to change feet to yards, divide by 3 (27 feet = 9 yards). A yardstick is three 1-foot rulers laid end to end.
Is a yard longer than a meter?
No. A meter is a little longer. One yard is exactly 0.9144 meter, or 91.44 centimeters, so a meter is about 1.09 yards. Over a short length the difference is small, but 100 yards is only about 91 meters, so a 100-meter dash is longer than a 100-yard dash.
Why do we say square yards for carpet?
Carpet covers a flat floor, so it is measured by area, not length. A square yard is a square 1 yard on each side, which is 3 feet by 3 feet, or 9 square feet. To find square yards, multiply the length and width in yards, or divide square feet by 9.
MeterA meter (m) is a metric unit of length equal to 100 centimeters. It is the base unit of length in the metric system, a little over three feet (about 3.28 feet). A doorway is about 2 meters tall, and 1,000 meters make a kilometer. To change meters to centimeters, multiply by 100.Measurement · Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5CentimeterA centimeter is a metric unit of length equal to one hundredth of a meter, about the width of a fingernail. Its symbol is cm. There are 100 centimeters in 1 meter and 10 millimeters in 1 centimeter, and 1 inch equals 2.54 centimeters.Measurement · Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5InchAn inch is a US customary unit of length equal to one twelfth of a foot, about the width of an adult thumb. Its abbreviation is in. Rulers split each inch into halves, quarters, eighths and sixteenths. One inch is exactly 2.54 centimeters, and 12 inches make 1 foot.Measurement · Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4MileA mile (mi) is a US customary unit of length for long distances, equal to 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards. One mile is about 1.61 kilometers, so it is longer than a kilometer. Road distances and speed limits in the United States use miles and miles per hour.Measurement · Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6VolumeVolume measures the amount of space inside a three-dimensional figure, in cubic units such as cubic centimeters or cubic feet. You can find it by counting the unit cubes that fill the solid. For a rectangular prism, V = l × w × h; for any prism, it equals the area of the base multiplied by the height.Geometry · Grade 5, Grade 6, Grade 7SquareA square is a quadrilateral with four equal sides and four right angles. It is a special rectangle and a special rhombus at the same time. For a square with side s, the perimeter is 4s, the area is s2, and each diagonal is s√2.Geometry · Kindergarten, Grade 2, Grade 3PeriodThe period of a repeating function is the horizontal length of one complete cycle: the smallest distance after which the graph repeats exactly. y = sinx and y = cosx have period 2π, or 360°, and y = tanx has period π. For y = sin(Bx) or y = cos(Bx), the period is 2π|B|.Trigonometry · Algebra 2, PrecalculusFootA foot is a US customary unit of length equal to 12 inches, about the length of a standard school ruler. Its abbreviation is ft, and its plural is feet. There are 3 feet in a yard and 5,280 feet in a mile, and 1 foot is exactly 30.48 centimeters.Measurement · Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4Metric SystemThe metric system is a system of measurement in which units are related by powers of 10. Its base units are the meter for length, the gram for mass and the liter for capacity. Prefixes name larger and smaller units: kilo- means 1,000, centi- means one hundredth and milli- means one thousandth, so 1 km = 1,000 m.Measurement · Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6LengthLength is how long something is: the distance from one end of an object to the other. You measure it by counting equal units laid end to end with no gaps or overlaps, such as inches, feet, centimeters or meters. A new pencil is about 7 inches long.Measurement · Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3RemainderA remainder is the amount left over when one whole number does not divide another evenly. In 23 ÷ 5, four groups of 5 make 20 and 3 are left, so 23 ÷ 5 = 4 R 3. The remainder is always smaller than the divisor. A remainder of 0 means the division is exact.Operations · Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6SideA side is one of the straight line segments that form the outline of a polygon. Two sides meet at each corner, or vertex. A triangle has 3 sides and a square has 4, and adding the lengths of all the sides gives the perimeter.Geometry · Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2NumberA number is an amount or value used to count, measure, order and compare. We write numbers with digits (7), words (seven) or other symbols, but the number itself is the amount: 7 dots, the word seven and the numeral 7 all show the same number. Numbers include whole numbers, fractions, decimals and negatives.Number System · Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2DifferenceA difference is the result of subtracting one number from another. In 12 − 7 = 5, the difference is 5. It tells how much bigger one number is than another, or how far apart they are on a number line. “The difference of a and b” means a − b, in that order.Operations · Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3Unit ConversionUnit conversion is rewriting a measurement in a different unit without changing the amount, such as writing 3 feet as 36 inches. You multiply by a conversion factor, a fraction equal to 1 such as 12 in1 ft. Converting to a smaller unit gives a larger number; converting to a larger unit gives a smaller number.Measurement · Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6AreaArea is the amount of surface a flat shape covers, measured in square units. It counts how many unit squares fit inside the shape, which is why the units are squared. A rectangle’s area is length times width, so a 5 by 3 rectangle has area 15 square units.Geometry · Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5RatioA ratio compares two quantities by division. Ratios can be written with words, a colon, or a fraction: 3 boys to 5 girls is 3 to 5, 3 : 5, or 35. Order matters, and a ratio can compare part to part or part to whole. Multiplying both numbers by the same amount gives an equivalent ratio.Ratios and Proportions · Grade 6, Grade 7, Grade 8