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Length/Distance | Convert from block [Midwest U.S.] to gry |
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Common Length Conversions Metric Length Conversions Unit Definition (block [Midwest U.S.]) The Block is an informal unit of distance popular in the U.S. A block is the average distance between street intersections in the rectangular street grids common in most American cities. The length of a block in many midwestern USA cities is about 1/16 mile or 100 meters. Unit Definition (gry) The gry is a proposed unit of distance in the English traditional system. The name was first used in June 1679 by the philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) as a unit equal to 0.001 foot, 0.01 inch, or 0.1 line in a decimalized distance system. (Thomas Jefferson, who was very familiar with Locke's writings, later proposed a similar system in the U.S., but he called 0.001 foot a point rather than a gry.) In 1813, the gry was revived in another decimal measurement scheme in Britain. All these ideas failed, but the gry had some limited use in the nineteenth century as a unit equal to 0.1 line or 1/120 inch (0.211 667 millimeter). Long forgotten, the gry recently came back into the limelight in connection with a puzzle, circulating on the Internet, which asked for three English words ending in -gry. The word "gry" is from the ancient Greek, where it meant "a trifling amount".
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