Yards (yd)

What is a yard?

The yard is a unit of length in the imperial and US customary systems equal to 3 feet or 36 inches, and exactly 0.9144 meters. A yard is a little shorter than a meter, about 91.4 cm.

The yard is used for fabric, sports fields and golf distances, and in the UK for short road distances on signs.

What yards are used for

• American football: the field is 100 yards between goal lines
• Golf hole lengths and club distances
• Fabric and yarn sold by the yard
• Short distances on UK road signs

Yards in real life

• An American football field is 100 yd long (120 yd with end zones)
• A typical par-4 golf hole is 350–470 yards
• A cricket pitch is 22 yards long

One yard is about the length of a baseball bat, or about 5.1 bananas laid end to end, or about 6.1 smartphones laid end to end, or about 3 12-inch rulers laid end to end.

History of the yard

Tradition says the yard was the distance from King Henry I's nose to the thumb of his outstretched arm. It was kept as a bronze standard bar in England for centuries and defined as exactly 0.9144 m in 1959.