Danish Units of Measurement - Length

Length

See also Danish rute (rod)
  • mil – Danish mile. Towards the end of the 17th century, Ole Rømer, Gerardus Mercator and other contemporaries of the great Dutch cartographer Thisus began following Claudius Ptolemy in connecting the mile to the great circle of the earth, and Roemer defined it as 12,000 alen. This definition was adopted in 1816 as the Prussian Meile. The coordinated definition from 1835 was 7.532 km. Earlier, there were many variants, the most commonplace the Sjællandsk miil of 17,600 alen or 11.13 km (6.92 mi).
  • palme – palm, for circumference, 8.86 cm (3.49 in)
  • alen – ell, 2 fod
  • fod – foot, about 313.85 mm (12.356 inches) in most recent usage. Defined as a Rheinfuss 314.07 mm (12.365 inches) from 1683, before that 314.1 mm (12.366 in) with variations.
  • kvarter – quarter, 1/4 alen
  • tomme – thumb (inch), 1/12 fod
  • linie – line, 1/12 tomme
  • skrupel – scruple, 1/12 linie

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