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The quarter of a yard (9 inches) was known as the "quarter" without further qualification, while the sixteenth of a yard (2.25 inches) was called a nail. [62] The eighth of a yard (4.5 inches) was sometimes called a finger, [63] but was more commonly referred to simply as an eighth of a yard, while the half-yard (18 inches) was called "half a ...
A fire hydrant marked as 3-inch. The inch (symbol: in or ″) is a unit of length in the British Imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement.It is equal to 1 / 36 yard or 1 / 12 of a foot.
The Compositio redefined the yard, foot, inch, and barleycorn to 10 ⁄ 11 of their previous value. [dubious – discuss] However, it retained the Anglo-Saxon rod of 15 x 11 ⁄ 10 feet (5.03 metres) and the acre of 4 × 40 square rods. Thus, the rod went from 5 old yards to 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 new yards, or 15 old feet to 16 + 1 ⁄ 2 new feet. The ...
The cubic inch, cubic foot and cubic yard are commonly used for measuring volume. In addition, there is one group of units for measuring volumes of liquids (based on the wine gallon and subdivisions of the fluid ounce ), and one for measuring volumes of dry material , each with their own names and sub-units.
In 1324 Edward II systematized units of length by defining the inch as 3 barleycorns, the foot as 12 inches, the yard as 3 feet, the perch as 5 1 ⁄ 2 yards, and the acre as an area 4 by 40 perches. [2]
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] [5] Common imperial units and U.S. customary units of length include: [6] thou or mil (1 ⁄ 1000 of an inch) inch (25.4 mm) foot (12 inches, 0.3048 m) yard (3 feet, 0.9144 m)
The main units of length (inch, foot, yard and international mile) were the same in the US, though the US rarely uses some of the intermediate units today, such as the (surveyor's) chain (22 yards) and the furlong (220 yards). At one time, the definition of the nautical mile was based on the surface area of the Clarke ellipsoid.
Other English measures called an ell include the "yard and handful", or 40 in. ell, abolished in 1439; the yard and inch, or 37 in. ell (a cloth measure), abolished after 1553 and known later as the Scotch ell＝37.06; and the cloth ell of 45 in., used until 1600. [12] See yard for details.