Convert Mile (mi) to Dekameter (dam) instantly.
About these units
Mile (mi)
The mile, equal to 5,280 feet, is a legacy of a long history of measurement stretching back to Roman times. Its ancestor, the Roman "mille passus" (thousand paces), established a rough distance of 1,480 meters, which evolved through medieval and early modern Europe into various regional miles. The English statute mile was standardized in 1593 and survives today in the United States, the United Kingdom (for roadways), and a few other territories. Despite being a non-metric unit, the mile remains deeply embedded in cultural and infrastructural systems. Road networks in the US are laid out with mile markers; athletic events include the famed "one-mile run"; and many people intuitively judge driving distances in miles. Aviation and international travel sometimes reference statute miles, though nautical miles dominate in navigation. Its long history and familiarity keep the mile relevant even in a metric world.
Dekameter (dam)
A dekameter (sometimes spelled "decameter"), equal to ten meters, is another unit in the metric system that is infrequently used in everyday life. Its primary applications arise in surveying, topographic mapping, and environmental science. When measuring the heights of waves, depth increments in lakes, or widths of natural features like river channels, the dekameter provides a convenient scale—large enough to avoid cumbersome numbers yet small enough to maintain meaningful detail. While modern GPS and digital mapping tools often use meters directly, the dekameter persists in specialty fields that value standardized interval measurements. For example, contour intervals on geographic maps may be expressed in dekameters for uniformity. The unit's relative obscurity reflects the public's preference for units with intuitive relevance (like meters and kilometers), but its presence is nonetheless important in systematic metric progression.