sentence: common imperial units and u.s. customary units of length include : thou or mil ( 1/1000 of an inch ) line ( 1/12 of an inch ) inch ( 2.54 cm ) foot ( 12 inches , 0.3048 m ) yard ( 3 ft , 0.9144 m ) ( terrestrial ) mile ( 5280 ft , 1609.344 m ) ( land ) league ( 3 miles ) marine in addition , the following are used by mariners : fathom ( for depth ; only in non-metric countries ) ( 2 yards = 1.8288 m ) nautical mile ( one minute of arc of latitude = 1852 m ) aviation aviators use feet ( same as us ) for altitude worldwide ( except in russia and china ) and nautical miles for distance .