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Length/Distance | Convert from cape foot to chain [Gunter, survey] |
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Common Length Conversions Metric Length Conversions Unit Definition (cape foot) The cape foot is a traditional unit of length in South Africa. The Cape foot equals 12.396 English inches, 1.0330 English foot, or 31.4858 centimeters. This unit is not the traditional Dutch foot, but it is similar in length to the "Rhine foot" of northern Germany. The Cape foot was widely used for land measurement and appears on many deeds in South Africa. Europeans often referred to South Africa as "The Cape," meaning the Cape of Good Hope. 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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