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Length/Distance | Convert from chain [Gunter, survey] to centimeter |
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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 (centimeter) The centimeter (or centimetre) was the basic unit of distance in the former CGS (centimeter, gram, second) version of the metric system, equal to 0.01 meter. The engineering standard uses every third power of ten, such as 10e3, 10e9, 10e12, etc., and for small numbers 10e-3, 10e-6, etc. The only exception is the centimeter. "Cent" means a hundredth, or 10e-2, but the centimeter is still commonly used because it is such a convenient unit for measuring length.
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