Foot, the most common unit of lineal measure all over the world, was taken originally from the length of the human foot. The three foot-measures that occur most frequently are the Paris foot or piéd de roi, the (German) Rhenish foot, and the English. Compared with the French mètre (= 3.28090 English feet) they stand thus:
| Mètre. | English Inches. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| English foot | = 0.30479 | Paris foot | = 12.78912 |
| Paris " | = 0.32484 | Rhenish " | = 12.35652 |
| Rhenish " | = 0.31385 |
In round numbers, 46 Paris feet = 49 English feet, 34 Rhen. or Ger. feet = 35 English, and 57 Paris feet = 59 Rhenish. The Russian foot is almost exactly equal to the English. Many local feet are only about 10 inches. The foot has almost uniformly been divided into 12 inches, and the inch into 12 lines (often, however, into tenths). The French piéd usuel is the third part of the mètre (see YARD, MÈTRE). In Music a foot is a short figure with one accent, and in Mètre (q.v.) a certain number of syllables (dactyl, iambus, &c.).