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Length/Distance | Convert from chain [Gunter, survey] to X unit |
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Common Length Conversions Metric Length Conversions Unit Definition (chain [Gunter, survey]) The chain is a unit of distance formerly used by surveyors. The traditional British surveyor's chain, also called Gunter's chain because it was introduced by the English mathematician Edmund Gunter (1581-1626) in 1620, is 4 rods long: that's equal to exactly 1/80 mile, 1/10 furlong, 22 yards, or 66 feet (20.1168 meters). The traditional length of a cricket pitch is 1 chain. Gunter's chain has the useful property that an acre is exactly 10 square chains. The chain was divided into 100 links. American surveyors sometimes used a longer chain of 100 feet, known as the engineer's chain or Ramsden's chain. (However, Gunter's chain is also used in the U.S.; in fact, it is an important unit in the Public Lands Survey System.) In Texas, the vara chain of 2 varas (55.556 ft) was used in surveying Spanish land grants. In the metric world, surveyors often use a chain of 20 meters (65.617 ft). Unit Definition (X unit) The X-unit (symbol xu) is a unit of length formerly used to measure the wavelength of X-rays and gamma rays. The X-unit is approximately 1.0021×10-13 metre. Defined by the Swedish physicist Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn (1886-1978) in 1925, the X-unit could not at that time be measured directly; the definition was instead made in terms of the spacing between planes of the calcite crystals used in the measuring apparatus.
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