Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Miscellaneous Measurements
•
Acre
: Originally the area a yoke of oxen could plow in one day, it equals an area of 43,560 square
feet (4,840 square yards).
•
Chain
: A chain is a surveying tool sometimes called a Gunter's, or surveyor's, chain. Measuring
66 feet long, it equals one tenth of a furlong and is divided into 100 parts called
links.
One mile is
equal to 80 chains.
•
Cubit
: What was God talking about when he gave the ark's measurements to Noah? A cubit is
18 inches, or 45.72 cm. The length is derived from the distance between the elbow and the tip of
middle finger and the word comes from the Latin
cubitum
, for elbow.
•
Knot
: A knot is not a distance but a measure of speed equal to 1 nautical mile per hour, used for
measuring the speed of ships. The term is derived from the old sailor's practice of throwing a
knotted rope over the side of the ship. The number of knots that were fed out in a specific period
of time determined the ship's speed. The knotted rope was weighted at the end with a piece of
wood, which is the source of the term “ship's log,” in which the ship's speed, position, and other
pertinent information were recorded.
•
League
: A rather indefinite and varying measure, but usually estimated at 3 statute miles in
English-speaking countries. It comes from the medieval Latin word
leuga
, for “a measure of dis-
tance.”
•
Mile
: In the United States and other English-speaking countries, a
statute
(or
land
)
mile
is a meas-
ure equal to 1,760 yards (5,280 feet). A
nautical mile
is a unit used for sea and air measurement
and is equal to 1,852 meters or about 6,076 feet. The word originates in Latin
mille passuum
, for
“a thousand paces.”
•
Astronomical unit (A.U.)
: Used for astronomy because conventional measurements are unwork-
able, this is equal to 93 million miles, the average distance of the earth from the sun.
•
Light year
: A light year is 5,880,000,000,000 miles. Let's not be picky and just call it almost 6
trillion miles. This is the distance light travels in a vacuum in a year at the rate of 186,281.7 miles
(299,792 kilometers) per second. If an astronomical unit (see above) were represented by one
