Re: How long is a Chain?

[Bill <billguest@the.net.nz>]

1 chain = 1 Aussie cricket pitch = 22yds = 100 links (a later invention to help
surveyors I believe)

For most purposes the rough conversion of 1 chain = 20 metres is quite close.
Thus a 15 chain radius curve is about 300 metres radius. And a mile of 80
chains converts fairly closely to 1600 metres (1609.344 to be exact)

It is often useful to be able to convert areas too:

The old quarter acre section is about 1000 sq metres, so an acre is about 4000
sq. m., and the hectare is about 2.5 acres (2.471054 to be fairly exact!). Not
quite so easy in the house: It takes almost 11 sq ft to make 1 sq metre (for
those quick at approximations, a 2% correction is worthwhile because the
correct figure is 10.7639 rather than 11). Thus a fairly standard sort of 1500
sq ft basic house is fairly close to 136 sq m - add 2% of that amount and you
are close to 140 sq m. Of course the Aussies use "squares" as a unit of area,
and that is a little over 9 sq metres. So a house of 15 squares is a bit over
135 sq m. 135, 140, there is only about 3.7% difference between them.........

Hmmmm....I just remembered why I prefer the metric system.

Bill

Ben O'Regan wrote:

> OK,
>
> I know how long a piece of string is, but how long is a chain?
>
> I've got a conversion table explaining inches, feet, yards, rods, furlongs,
> miles and leagues but not chains.
>
> (I recall that surveyors used chains that were 100 something long while
> engineers used chains that were 100 something else long).
>
> From recollection, 1 chain is about 20 metres. Therefore I work out that a
> chain is 65'6" (taking 1m = 39.37", 20m = 784.4'( /12) = 65.5' or more
> correctly, 65'6"). Somehow this doesn't seem right.
>
> Please help, I'm a metricated baby!!!
>
> Ben :)