Convert hand to furlong (US survey) Online | Free Length Converter

Hand

A hand is a traditional unit of length primarily used to measure the height of horses. It is equal to 4 inches or 10.16 centimeters.

The origin of the hand as a measurement comes from using the width of a human hand, and it has been standardized at 4 inches for consistency in horse measurement. Horse height is expressed in "hands," measured from the ground to the highest point of the withers (the ridge between the shoulder blades).

Key points:

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  1 hand = 4 inches

  
  
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  1 hand = 10.16 centimeters

  
  
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  Used mainly for measuring horse height

  
  
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  Horse height is often given in hands and inches, e.g., 15.2 hands means 15 hands plus 2 inches

  
  

The hand remains the standard unit for horse height in many English-speaking countries.

Furlong (US Survey)

The furlong (US survey) is a traditional unit of distance used in U.S. land surveying, defined as 1/8 of a U.S. survey mile, or exactly 660 U.S. survey feet. Since one U.S. survey foot equals approximately 0.3048006096 meters, the US survey furlong is about 201.1684 meters long.

While the difference between the US survey furlong and the international (standard) furlong is extremely small (just a few micrometers), it was significant in precise land measurements, particularly in legal and cadastral surveying contexts.

Key Conversions:

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  1 US survey furlong = 660 US survey feet

  
  
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  1 US survey furlong ≈ 220 yards

  
  
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  1 US survey furlong ≈ 201.1684 meters

  
  
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  8 US survey furlongs = 1 US survey mile

  
  

As of 2023, the U.S. has officially deprecated the use of the survey foot (and by extension the survey furlong) in favor of the international foot, but it may still appear in historical and legal documents.