How do I convert meters to yards?
Divide by 0.9144, which is exactly how long a yard is in metres. Multiplying by 1.0936 does the same job.
100 m comes to 109.36 yards. That's why a 100 m sprint is a bit longer than the old 100-yard dash.
Quick version: add 10%. 100 m becomes 110 yards, which is under 1% too high – plenty good enough for a golf course, where the yardage on the card was never going to win you the hole anyway.
What is a meter?
The meter is the SI base unit of length and is equal to 100 centimeters or 1,000 millimeters. It was originally defined as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator along the meridian through Paris. Since 1983 it has been the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
Where in the world are meters used?
The meter is the legal unit of length in nearly every country. The US, Liberia and Myanmar are the usual three listed as holdouts.
In the EU, goods have to be labelled in metric units, so lengths are given in meters and centimeters. Road signs use kilometers, apart from the UK, which still uses miles.
Asia, Africa and Oceania are essentially all metric, and so are the Americas apart from the US. Canada has been metric since the 1970s, though it still gives your height in feet and inches.
What is a yard?
A yard is 3 feet or 36 inches. In the US you mostly see it on football fields, which run 100 yards between the goal lines, and in the UK short road distances are still signed in yards.
The yard is traditionally the distance from the nose of King Henry I of England to the thumb of his outstretched arm, though its length varied from place to place for centuries. It was only fixed internationally in 1959, at exactly 0.9144 meters.
Nearly every other country uses the meter instead. In the US, bulk soil and mulch are still sold by the cubic yard, which is 27 cubic feet.
Where in the world are yards used?
Outside the US and the UK the yard is hardly used. Most countries have been metric long enough that nobody has a feel for it.
In the US yards turn up on football fields and golf courses, and in the UK short distances on road signs are given in yards. Canada plays football in yards too, on a field 110 yards between the goal lines.
Australia changed to metric in the 1970s and Ireland changed its road signs to kilometers in 2005. The UK still uses miles and yards on its roads.