Length
The basic unit is the Russian cubit, called arshin, which has been in use since the 16th century. It was standardized by Peter the Great in the 18th century to measure exactly twenty-eight English inches (71.1 cm). Thus, 80 vershoks = 20 piads = 5 arshins = 140 English inches.
A piad (пядь, “palm”, “five”) or chetvert (че́тверть, “quarter”) is a hand span, the distance between ends of the spread thumb and index finger.
| Unit | Russian | Translation | Ratio | Metric Value |
English units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tochka | то́чка | point | 1/2800 | 0.254 mm | 1/100 inch |
| liniya | ли́ния | line | 1/280 | 2.54 mm | 1/10 inch; cf. line |
| diuym | дюйм | inch | 1/28 | 2.54 cm | 1 inch |
| vershok | вершо́к | “tip” or “top” | 1/16 | 4.445 cm | 1 ¾ in; cf. 19" rack unit |
| piad, chetvert | пядь, че́тверть | “palm”, quarter | 1/4 | 17.78 cm | 7 in; cf. span |
| fut | фут | foot | 3/7 | 30.48 cm | 1 ft |
| arshin | арши́н | yard | 1 | 71.12 cm | 2 ⅓ ft |
| sazhen | са́жень | fathom | 3 | 2.1336 m | 7 ft |
| versta | верста́ | turn (of a plough) | 1500 | 1.0668 km | 3,500 ft |
| milia | ми́ля | mile | 10,500 | 7.4676 km | 24,500 ft |
Alternative units:
- Swung sazhen (маховая сажень, makhovaya sazhen’, distance between tips of arms stretched sidewards) = 1.76 m
- Skewed, or oblique sazhen (косая сажень, kosaya sazhen’, distance between tip of a raised arm and a tip of an opposite leg slightly put away) = 2.48 m
- Double versta or border versta, (межевая верста, mezhevaya versta), used to measure land plots and distances between settlements = 2 verstas (comes from an older standard for versta)
Read more about this topic: Obsolete Russian Units Of Measurement
Famous quotes containing the word length:
“A playwright ... is ... the litmus paper of the arts. He’s got to be, because if he isn’t working on the same wave length as the audience, no one would know what in hell he was talking about. He is a kind of psychic journalist, even when he’s great.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)
“A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“Nor had I erred in my calculations—nor had I endured in vain. I at length felt that I was free.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)