Units of Measurement

                             Units of Measurement

 Acre - The (English) acre is a unit of

area equal to 43,560 square feet, or 10

square chains, or 160 square poles. It

derives from a plowing area that is 4

poles wide and a furlong (40 poles)

long. A square mile is 640 acres. The

Scottish acre is 1.27 English acres. The

Irish acre is 1.6 English acres.

 Arpent - 





Unit of length and area used in

France, Louisiana, and Canada. As a

unit of length, approximately 191.8 feet

(180 old French 'pied', or foot). The

(square) arpent is a unit of area,

approximately .845 acres, or 36,802

square feet.

 Chain - Unit of length usually

understood to be Gunter's chain, but

possibly variant by locale. A 100 foot

chain is also sometimes used by

American surveyors. See

also Rathbone's chain. The name comes

from the heavy metal chain of 100 links

that was used by surveyors to measure

property bounds.

 Colpa - Old Irish measure of land equal

to that which can support a horse or

cow for a year. Approximately an Irish

acre of good land.

 Compass - 


One toise.

 Cuerda - 


Traditional unit of area in

Puerto Rico. Equal to about .971 acres.

Known as the "Spanish acre".

 Engineer's Chain -

 A 100

foot chain containing 100 links of one

foot apiece.

 Furlong - Unit of length equal to 40

poles (220 yards). Its name derives

from "furrow long", the length of a

furrow that oxen can plow before they

are rested and turned. See Gunter's

chain.

 Ground - A unit of area equal to 2400

sq. ft., or 220 sq. meters, used in India.

 Gunter's Chain - 

Unit of length equal to 66 feet, or 4 poles. Developed by

English polymath Edmund Gunter early

in the 1600's, the standard measuring

chain revolutionized surveying. Gunter's

chain was 22 yards long, one tenth of

a furlong, a common unit of length in

the old days. An area one chain wide by

ten chains long was exactly an acre. In

1595 Queen Elizabeth I had the mile

redefined from the old Roman value of

5000 feet to 5280 feet in order for it to

be an even number of furl