How Long Is A Furlong

Unit of length equal to 660 feet or nigh 201 metres

Furlong
Unit organization	royal/US units
Unit of	length
Conversions
1 furlong in ...	... is equal to ...

majestic/United states of america units	220 yd
metric (SI) units	201.1680 m

Farm-derived units of measurement:

The rod is a historical unit of length equal to five+ 1⁄two yards. It may have originated from the typical length of a mediaeval ox-goad. There are 4 rods in i chain.
The furlong (meaning furrow length) was the distance a squad of oxen could plough without resting. This was standardised to exist exactly twoscore rods or 10 chains.
An acre was the corporeality of land tillable by ane human being behind one ox in 1 twenty-four hours. Traditional acres were long and narrow due to the difficulty in turning the plough and the value of river front access.
An oxgang was the amount of land tillable by ane ox in a ploughing season. This could vary from village to village, but was typically effectually fifteen acres.
A virgate was the amount of land tillable by two oxen in a ploughing season.
A carucate was the amount of land tillable by a squad of eight oxen in a ploughing season. This was equal to 8 oxgangs or 4 virgates.

A furlong is a measure of distance in regal units and United States customary units equal to one eighth of a mile, equivalent to 660 feet, 220 yards, twoscore rods, 10 chains or approximately 201 metres. It is now almost obsolete, except in equus caballus racing, where in many countries it is the standard measurement of race lengths.

In the U.s., some states use older definitions for surveying purposes, leading to variations in the length of the furlong of two parts per one thousand thousand, or virtually 0.4 millimetres ( one⁄64 inch). This variation is too small to accept practical consequences in about applications.

Using the international definition of the yard as exactly 0.9144 metres, 1 furlong is 201.168 metres, and v furlongs are virtually 1 kilometre (1.00584 km exactly).

History [edit]

The proper name furlong derives from the Old English words furh (furrow) and lang (long).^[1] Dating dorsum at least to early Anglo-Saxon times, it originally referred to the length of the furrow in one acre of a ploughed open field (a medieval communal field which was divided into strips). The furlong (meaning furrow length) was the altitude a team of oxen could plough without resting. This was standardised to be exactly xl rods or x chains. The system of long furrows arose because turning a squad of oxen pulling a heavy plough was hard. This offset the drainage advantages of short furrows and meant furrows were fabricated as long as possible. An acre is an surface area that is one furlong long and one chain (66 feet or 22 yards) wide. For this reason, the furlong was once also chosen an acre's length,^[2] though in modernistic usage an area of i acre can be of any shape. The term furlong, or shot, was also used to draw a grouping of adjacent strips within an open up field.^[3]

Among the early on Anglo-Saxons, the rod was the cardinal unit of country measurement. A furlong was 40 rods; an acre iv past twoscore rods, or 4 rods by 1 furlong, and thus 160 square rods; at that place are 10 acres in a square furlong. At the fourth dimension, the Saxons used the North German foot, which was near x pct longer than the foot of the international 1959 understanding. When England changed to a shorter foot in the late 13th century, rods and furlongs remained unchanged, since property boundaries were already divers in rods and furlongs. The only matter that inverse was the number of feet and yards in a rod or a furlong, and the number of square feet and square yards in an acre. The definition of the rod went from 15 former feet to 16+ 1⁄2 new feet, or from 5 one-time yards to five+ 1⁄two new yards. The furlong went from 600 former anxiety to 660 new anxiety, or from 200 one-time yards to 220 new yards. The acre went from 36,000 old square feet to 43,560 new square feet, or from 4,000 old square yards to iv,840 new square yards.^[4]

The furlong was historically viewed as existence equivalent to the Roman stade (stadium),^[5] which in turn derived from the Greek organisation. For instance, the King James Bible uses the term "furlong" in identify of the Greek stadion, although more contempo translations frequently use miles or kilometres in the master text and give the original numbers in footnotes.

In the Roman organization, there were 625 anxiety to the stadium, 8 stadia to the mile, and three miles to the league. A league was considered to be the distance a homo could walk in ane hr, and the mile (from mille, meaning "thou") consisted of ane,000 passus (paces, v feet, or double-step).

Afterwards the fall of the Western Roman Empire, medieval Europe continued with the Roman arrangement, which the people proceeded to diversify, leading to serious complications in trade, tax, etc. Around the year 1300, by royal prescript England standardized a long list of measures. Amidst the important units of altitude and length at the time were the human foot, yard, rod (or pole), furlong, and the mile. The rod was defined as 5+ 1⁄2 yards or 16+ i⁄2 feet, and the mile was eight furlongs, so the definition of the furlong became twoscore rods and that of the mile became 5,280 feet (viii furlongs/mile times 40 rods/furlong times sixteen+ 1⁄2 feet/rod).

A description from 1675 states, "Dimensurator or Measuring Instrument whereof the mosts usual has been the Chain, and the common length for English Measures four Poles, equally answering indifferently to the Englishs Mile and Acre, 10 such Chains in length making a Furlong, and 10 single foursquare Chains an Acre, so that a square Mile contains 640 foursquare Acres." —John Ogilby, Britannia, 1675

The official utilize of the furlong was abolished in the U.k. under the Weights and Measures Act 1985, an human action that also abolished the official employ of many other traditional units of measurement.

Use [edit]

Present-day use of furlongs on a highway sign about Yangon

Mileposts on the Yangon–Mandalay Expressway apply miles followed by furlongs

In Myanmar, furlongs are currently used in conjunction with miles to point distances on highway signs. Mileposts on the Yangon–Mandalay Pike use miles and furlongs.

In the rest of the world, the furlong has very limited use, with the notable exception of horse racing in well-nigh English language-speaking countries, including Canada and the United States. The distances for horse racing in Australia were converted to metric in 1972,^[6] but in the United Kingdom,^[7] Ireland, Canada, and the United States, races are still given in miles and furlongs. Too distances along the canals in English language navigated by narrowboats are commonly expressed in miles and furlongs.

The city of Chicago's street numbering system allots a measure of 800 address units to each mile, in keeping with the city'south system of eight blocks per mile. This means that every block in a typical Chicago neighborhood (in either n–south or east–due west management but rarely both) is approximately one furlong in length. Salt Lake City's blocks are besides each a square furlong in the downtown expanse. The blocks become less regular in shape further from the center, but the numbering system (800 units to each mile) remains the same everywhere in Table salt Lake Canton. Blocks in cardinal Logan, Utah, and in large sections of Phoenix, Arizona, are similarly a foursquare furlong in extent (8 to a mile, which explains the series of freeway exits: 19th Ave, 27th, 35th, 43rd, 51st, 59th ...). City blocks in the Hoddle Grid of Melbourne are also one furlong in length.

Much of Ontario, Canada, was originally surveyed on a 10-furlong grid, with major roads being laid out forth the filigree lines. At present that distances are shown on route signs in kilometres, these major roads are well-nigh exactly two kilometres apart. The exits on highways running through Toronto, for example, are by and large at intervals of two kilometres.^[viii] ^[9]

The Bangor City Woods in Bangor, Maine has its trail system marked in miles and furlongs.

The furlong is too a base of operations unit of the humorous FFF system of units.^[x]

Definition of length [edit]

The exact length of the furlong varies slightly amongst English-speaking countries. In Canada^[11] and the United Kingdom,^[12] which ascertain the furlong in terms of the international grand of exactly 0.9144 metres, a furlong is 201.168 yard. Australia^[13] does not formally define the furlong, but information technology does ascertain the chain and link in terms of the international yard.

In the Usa, which defines the furlong, chain, rod, and link in terms of the U.Due south. survey pes of exactly 1200⁄3937 metre,^[14] a furlong is approximately 201.1684 m long. The United States does not formally define a "survey grand". The divergence of approximately two parts per 1000000 between the U.S. value and the "international" value is insignificant for most practical measurements.

In Oct 2019, U.S. National Geodetic Survey and National Institute of Standards and Engineering announced their joint intent to retire the U.South. survey foot, with effect from the terminate of 2022. The furlong in U.Due south. Customary units is thereafter defined based on the International 1959 foot, giving the length of the furlong as exact 201.168 meters in the Usa as well.^[15] ^[sixteen]

References [edit]

^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Furlong". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. eleven (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 358.
^ Shakespeare, William (2000). The Wintertime's Tale (entire ed.). Courier Dover. p. 5. ISBN9780486411187. footnote 17: heat an acre; run a heat or class of an acre'southward length, "acre" beingness used equally a lineal mensurate, equivalent to a furlong. The Winter's Tale 1.2/123
^ Seebohm, Frederic (8 Dec 2011). The English Village Community Examined in Its Relation to the Manorial and Tribal Systems and to the Common Or Open Field System of Husbandry: An Essay in Economical History. Cambridge University Printing. p. 4. ISBN9781108036344.
^ Zupko, Ronald Edward (1977). British weights & measures: a history from artifact to the seventeenth century. Academy of Wisconsin Printing. pp. 10–xi, 20–21. ISBN978-0-299-07340-4.
^ Compare Josephus, Antiquities (15.11.3), who writes of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem that it was encompassed by a wall which measured one stadion (Gr. στάδιον) to each angle, a word translated in English as "furlong."
^ "How to measure a racehorse". Museum Victoria. 2010. Archived from the original on 21 June 2015.
^ Instance of the apply of furlongs in equus caballus racing Archived 29 June 2011 at the Wayback Automobile
^ The Importance of Title Searches Archived ix July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Country Titles vs. Land Registry". Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 26 Baronial 2015.
^ Stan Kelly-Bootle, "As Big as a Barn?", ACM Queue, March 2007, pp. 62–64.
^ Weights and Measures Deed, R.S.C., 1985, as amended; Schedule Two, Canadian Units of Measurement.
^ Weights and Measures Human action 1985, as amended; Schedule 1, Function VI, Definitions of certain units which may non be used for trade except as supplementary indications.
^ National Measurement Regulations 1999, Statutory Rules 1999 No. 110 equally amended, Schedule 11, Conversion Factors.
^ NIST Special Publication 811, Guide for the Use of the International Organisation of Units (SI), Appendix B, B.half-dozen, U.Due south. survey foot and mile. National Institute for Standards and Engineering science, U.Due south. Section of Commerce, 2008.
^ "NGS and NIST to Retire U.S. Survey Human foot later 2022". National Geodetic Survey. 31 October 2019.
^ "U.Due south. Survey Human foot: Revised Unit Conversion Factors". NIST. 16 October 2019.