Length
| Unit | Relative value |
Metric value |
Imperial value |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| linja | 1/144 | ~2.06 mm | ~0.081 in | The width of barleycorn. |
| tuuma | 1/12 | ~24.74 mm | ~0.97 in | The width of thumb. Metrinen tuuma = 25 mm. |
| vaaksa | 1/2 | ~148.44 mm | ~5.84 in | The distance between the tips of little finger and thumb, when the fingers are fully extended. Today defined as 150 mm. |
| jalka | 1 | ~296.9 mm | ~11.68 in | The length of a human foot. |
| kyynärä | 2 | ~593.76 mm | ~1.94 ft | The distance from the elbow to the fingertips. The usual unit on measuring everyday lengths. Metrinen kyynärä = 500 mm. |
| syli | 6 | ~1.8 m | ~5.9 ft | Fathom; the distance between the fingertips of both hands when the arms are raised horizontally to the sides. In maritime, syli is 1/1000 of nautical mile (1.852 m). |
| vakomitta | 120 | ~213.6 m | ~700.78 ft | The furrow's length on field. |
| virsta | 600 | ~1068.84 m | ~0.66 mi | 2672 m (Swedish) 1068.84 m (Finnish). Related to the Russian verst. |
| peninkulma (old) | 3000 | ~5344.2 m | ~3.32 mi | Before year 1600 5 virsta; after 1600 10 virsta. The distance a barking dog can be heard in still air. |
| peninkulma (new) | 6000 | ~10.6884 km | ~6.64 mi | Before year 1600 5 virsta; after 1600 10 virsta. The distance a barking dog can be heard in still air. |
| päivämatka | 12,000 | ~20 km | ~12.42 mi | The distance of one day's travel. |
Read more about this topic: Finnish Units Of Measurement
Famous quotes containing the word length:
“Your length in clay’s now competent,
A long war disturbed your mind;”
—John Webster (c. 1580–1638)
“The light that was shadowed then
Was seen to be our lives,
Everything about us that love might wish to examine,
Then put away for a certain length of time, until
The whole is to be reviewed, and we turned
Toward each other, to each other.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“To find the length of an object, we have to perform certain
physical operations. The concept of length is therefore fixed when the operations by which length is measured are fixed: that is, the concept of length involves as much as and nothing more than the set of operations by which length is determined.”
—Percy W. Bridgman (1882–1961)