|
Length/Distance | Convert from quadrant to gry |
Related Categories:
Common Length Conversions Metric Length Conversions Unit Definition (quadrant) The quadrant is a unit of distance equal to the distance from the North Pole to the Equator. The metric system was originally designed to make this distance exactly 10 million meters (6213.71 miles). The actual meter comes close to the design. Using the conventional figures of 12 756 kilometers for the equatorial diameter of the earth and 12 714 kilometers for the polar diameter, and assuming the earth to have elliptic cross section, the length of the quadrant is about 10 001 300 meters (6214.52 miles). In principle, the quadrant is divided into 5400 nautical miles; in fact, 5400 international nautical miles equal 10 000 800 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".
|
|