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A cable's length (often "cable length" or just "cable") is simply the standard length in which cables came, which by 1555 had settled to around 100 fathoms (600 ft; 180 m) or 1 ⁄ 10 nautical mile (0.19 km; 0.12 mi). [1] Traditionally rope is made on long ropewalks, the length of which determines the maximum length of rope it is possible to make.
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 ...
A chain is a larger unit of length measuring 66 feet (20.1168 m), or 22 yards, or 100 links, [11] or 4 rods (20.1168 meters). There are 10 chains or 40 rods in a furlong (eighth-mile), and so 80 chains or 320 rods in one statute mile (1760 yards, 1609.344 m, 1.609344 km); the definition of which was legally set in 1593 and popularized by Royal ...
The basic unit of length in the imperial and U.S. customary systems is the yard, defined as exactly 0.9144 m by international treaty in 1959. [2] [10] Common imperial units and U.S. customary units of length include: [11] thou or mil (1 ⁄ 1000 of an inch) inch (25.4 mm) foot (12 inches, 0.3048 m) yard (3 feet, 0.9144 m)
In addition to the yardland, Old and Middle English both used their forms of "yard" to denote the surveying lengths of 15 feet (4.6 m) or 16.5 feet (5.0 m), used in computing acres, a distance now usually known as the "rod". [5] A unit of three English feet is attested in a statute of c. 1300 , but there it is called an ell (ulna, lit.
In both customary and imperial units, one foot comprises 12 inches, and one yard comprises three feet. Since an international agreement in 1959, the foot is defined as equal to exactly 0.3048 meters. Historically, the "foot" was a part of many local systems of units, including the Greek, Roman, Chinese, French, and English systems. It varied in ...
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.
A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. [2] [3] [4] Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( 1 / 60 of a degree) of latitude at the equator, so that Earth's polar circumference is very near to 21,600 nautical miles (that is 60 minutes × 360 degrees).