Chains to Feet Converter
| Chains | Feet | The landmark |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 66 | a cricket pitch, end to end |
| 10 | 660 | one furlong |
| 20 | 1320 | a quarter mile |
| 40 | 2640 | a half mile |
| 80 | 5280 | the statute mile |
A chain is sixty-six feet - and not a round number by accident. Edmund Gunter built it in 1620 as the unit that makes land arithmetic come out whole: ten chains to the furlong, eighty to the mile, ten square chains to the acre. Type either number and the converter lands the other.
The physical chain was 100 iron links, each 7.92 inches, dragged across fields by surveyors for three centuries - and the unit still binds: a cricket pitch is one chain long, American land patents describe boundaries in chains, and the furlong and acre both dissolve into chains without a remainder. The table runs the heights and distances a surveyor's notes actually record.
How to use
- Type the chains from a deed, patent or old survey note - feet appear instantly, or run the reverse.
- Read the table for the landmarks: one chain is a cricket pitch, ten are a furlong, ten square chains are an acre.
- Links are the fine print: each of the hundred links is 7.92 inches, so a notation like 3 chains 42 links converts here after the links become 33.18 feet.
Frequently asked questions
Why is a chain 66 feet?
Because Edmund Gunter wanted one rod-hard unit that turned acreage into mental arithmetic: 66 feet by 660 feet (one chain wide, one furlong long) is exactly 43,560 square feet - one acre. Ten square chains to the acre, ten chains to the furlong, eighty to the statute mile. No other customary length divides the land system so cleanly, which is why surveyors carried iron chains for three centuries after 1620.
Is a cricket pitch really one chain?
Exactly - 22 yards, 66 feet, one chain. The Laws of Cricket fixed the pitch length in the chain's own terms, which is why the number feels odd in feet and perfect in chains. It is the one place most people have walked a chain without knowing it, end to end, twenty-two yards between the stumps.
What is the difference between a Gunter chain and an engineer's chain?
Length and links: Gunter's surveyor's chain is 66 feet of 100 links; the engineer's chain (Ramsden's) is 100 feet of 100 one-foot links, built for civil engineering where decimal feet beat acres. Old deed abbreviations disambiguate the hard way - ch. usually means Gunter, but a note reading 5 ch. on a railroad survey may mean 500 feet. This converter is the Gunter side.
How do chain links convert?
One hundred links to the chain, each link 7.92 inches - so 1 link is 0.66 feet and the whole chain is 66. A survey reading 4 chains 17 links is 4.17 chains, which lands at 275.22 feet here. The link was the surveyor's sub-unit the way the inch is the foot's: recorded, added, and let the chains do the acreage.
Does anyone still measure in chains?
Land records do - chains run through the US Public Land Survey, old county deeds, railroad right-of-way descriptions and the agricultural press. Modern surveyors total-station in feet and meters, but the chain survives wherever the paperwork was written in it, and the cricket pitch carries it to anyone who watches sport. Converting the archive is what this page is for.