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Length/Distance | Convert from stadium to chain [Gunter, survey] |
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Common Length Conversions Metric Length Conversions Unit Definition (stadium) The stadium is a historic unit of distance originating in ancient Greece. Greek athletic fields were all of roughly the same size, and the stadion, equal to 600 podes (feet), was the traditional length of the field. Archaeological measurements show that the stadion was a little more than 200 yards or a little less than 200 meters. The stadion at Olympia, where the original Olympic Games were held, measures 630.8 feet or 192.3 meters; at Athens the stadion was 606.9 feet or 185.0 meters. Stadium is the Latin spelling; in the Roman world the stadium was equal to 625 Roman feet (pes) or 1/8 Roman mile. This is equivalent to 606.95 feet, 202.32 yards, or 185.00 meters. The plural is stadia. 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).
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