OK how far is it

[ColPrice2002]

OK,

Here's my tuppence worth!

The old chain was 4 rods - the rod was the device used to control/guide the lead ox when ploighing a furlong - i.e. about 16 feet long.
It then became used as the width for ploughing, you'll find that the old medieval strip farming plots are about 1 rod wide...

The Imperial liquid system is also quite logical:-

1 gallon of water - 10 lbs weight
1 gallon contains 8 pints of 20 fluid ounces.

The US - (for some reason) decided that the US pint weighs 1 lb - so the US Gallon is 8 x 16 = 128 ounces.

Cheers,

Colin
(who can still add up in £.s.d!)

 

[teddytoot]

WilleeCoyote

Even the Germans once had miles. I have a photo of a German milestone that I took outside a mining museum in, if I remember correctly, Goslar. Most European contries had similar pre-metric measurements but they were all different. That is why for example Swedish narrow gauge is 891mm as that was 3 Swedish feet.

I agree metric is far simpler. As a scientist I have used it all my life but I still have to use Imperial for some things since political interference stopped our total conversion to metric.

 

[motorman1066]

"Chains, my baby's got me locked up it chains,
And they ain't the kind that you can see....."
OH BEAR What have you started....

My 1972 Paul Hamlyn instant metric reckoner defines:

80 chains = 1 MILE = 1.609344 kilometres

Therefore 1 chain = 0.0201168 kilometres 0r
1 chain = 20.1168 metres