Re: How long is a Chain?

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

Another thought on this: it depends how high the cistern is above the dunny

Bill wrote:

> 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 :)