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The base unit is Gunter's chain of 66 feet (20 m) which is subdivided into 4 rods, each of 16.5 ft or 100 links of 0.66 feet. A link is abbreviated "lk", and links "lks", in old deeds and land surveys done for the government.
In 1593 the English mile was redefined by a statute of Queen Elizabeth I as 5,280 feet, to tie in with agricultural practice. In 1620, the polymath Edmund Gunter developed a method of accurately surveying land using a surveyor's chain 66 feet long with 100 links. [10] The 66-foot unit, which was four perches or rods, [11] took on the name the ...
The centimetre (SI symbol: cm) is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 10 −2 metres ( 1 / 100 m = 0.01 m). To help compare different orders of magnitude , this section lists lengths between 10 −2 m and 10 −1 m (1 cm and 1 dm).
Miners also use it as a unit of area equal to 6 feet square (3.34 m 2) in the plane of a vein. [2] In Britain, it can mean the quantity of wood in a pile of any length measuring 6 feet (1.8 m) square in cross section. [2] In Central Europe, the klafter was the corresponding unit of comparable length, as was the toise in France.
In the United States, the term statute mile formally refers to the survey mile, [3] but for most purposes, the difference of less than 1 ⁄ 8 inch (3.2 mm) between the survey mile and the international mile (1609.344 metres exactly) is insignificant—one international mile is 0.999 998 US survey miles—so statute mile can be used for either.
As one degree is 1 / 360 of a circle, one minute of arc is 1 / 21600 of a circle – such that the polar circumference of the Earth would be exactly 21,600 miles. Gunter used Snellius's circumference to define a nautical mile as 6,080 feet, the length of one minute of arc at 48 degrees latitude. [24]
The rod, perch, or pole (sometimes also lug) is a surveyor's tool [1] and unit of length of various historical definitions. In British imperial and US customary units, it is defined as 16 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet, equal to exactly 1 ⁄ 320 of a mile, or 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 yards (a quarter of a surveyor's chain), and is exactly 5.0292 meters.
In the United States the pace is an uncommon customary unit of length denoting a brisk single step and equal to 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet or 30.0 inches or 76.2 centimetres. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] The Ancient Roman pace ( Latin : passus ) was notionally the distance of a full stride from the position of one heel where it raised off of the ground to where it set ...