A unit of length refers to any arbitrarily chosen and accepted reference standard for measurement of length. The most common units in modern use are the metric system, used in every country globally. In the United States the U.S. customary units are also in use. British Imperial units are still used for some purposes in the United Kingdom and some other countries. The metric system is sub-divided into SI and non-SI units.
History
Metric system
SI
The base unit in the International System of Units (SI) is the
meter, defined as "the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of seconds."
It is approximately equal to . Other SI units are derived from the meter by adding
Metric prefix, as in millimeter or kilometer, thus producing systematic decimal multiples and submultiples of the base unit that span many orders of magnitude. For example, a
kilometer is .
Non-SI
In the centimeter–gram–second system of units, the basic unit of length is the
centimeter, or of a meter.
Other non-SI units are derived from decimal multiples of the meter.
Imperial/U.S.
The basic unit of length in the imperial and U.S. customary systems is the
yard, defined as exactly by international treaty in 1959.
Common imperial units and U.S. customary units of length include:
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thou or mil ( of an inch)
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inch ()
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foot (12 inches, 0.3048 m)
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yard (3 feet, 0.9144 m)
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(terrestrial) mile (5280 feet, or 1760 yards 1609.344 m)
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(land) league
Marine
In addition, the following are used by :
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fathom (for depth; only in non-metric countries) (2 yards = 1.8288 m)
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nautical mile (one minute of arc of latitude = )
Aviation
Aviators use feet for altitude worldwide (except in Russia and China) and nautical miles for distance.
Surveying
Surveying in the United States continue to use:
-
chain (22 yards, or )
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rod (also called pole or perch) (quarter of a chain, 5 yards, or )
Australian building trades
The Australian building trades adopted the metric system in 1966 and the units used for measurement of length are meters (m) and millimeters (mm). Centimeters (cm) are avoided as they cause confusion when reading plans. For example, the length two and a half meters is usually recorded as 2500 mm or 2.5 m; it would be considered non-standard to record this length as 250 cm.
Surveyor's trade
American surveyors use a decimal-based system of measurement devised by Edmund Gunter in 1620. The base unit is Gunter's chain of which is subdivided into 4 rods, each of 16.5 ft or 100 links of 0.66 feet. A link is abbreviated "lk", and links "lks", in old deeds and land surveys done for the government.
Science
Astronomy
Astronomy measure uses:
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Earth radius ≈ 6,371 km
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Lunar distance LD ≈ .
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astronomical unit au. Defined as .
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light-year ly ≈ . The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year.
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parsec pc ≈ or about
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Hubble length 14.4 billion light-years or 4.55 gigaparsecs
Physics
In atomic physics, sub-atomic physics, and cosmology, the preferred unit of length is often related to a chosen fundamental physical constant, or combination thereof. This is often a characteristic radius or wavelength of a particle. Some common natural units of length are included in this table:
|
| The classical electron radius | r e | | |
| The Compton wavelength of the electron | λ C | | |
| The reduced Compton wavelength of the electron | C | | |
| The Compton wavelength (or reduced Compton wavelength) of any fundamental particle | x | | |
| The Bohr radius of the hydrogen atom (Atomic unit of length) | a 0 | | |
| The reduced wavelength of hydrogen radiation | 1 / R∞ | | |
| The Planck length | 𝓁 P | | |
| Stoney units of length | l S | | |
| Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) unit of length | l QCD | | |
| Natural units based on the electronvolt | 1 eV−1 | | |
Archaic
Archaism units of distance include:
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cana
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cubit
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rope
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league
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li (China)
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pace (the "double pace" of about 5 feet used in Ancient Rome)
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verst (Russia)
Informal
In everyday conversation, and in informal literature, it is common to see lengths measured in units of objects of which everyone knows the approximate width. Common examples are:
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Double-decker bus (9.5–11 meters in length)
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American football field (100 yards in length)
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Thickness of a human hair (around 80 micrometers)
Other
Horse racing and other equestrian activities keep alive:
See also
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List of examples of lengths
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Medieval weights and measures
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Orders of magnitude (length)
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System of measurement
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Units of measurement
Further reading
