Chi (Chinese) to Inches (chi to in)

1 chi (Chinese) equals 13.12335958 inches (rounded).

1 chi (Chinese) = 13.12335958 inches

How to convert chi (Chinese) to inches

To convert chi (Chinese) to inches, multiply the number of chi (Chinese) by 13.12335958. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply inches by 0.0762.

inches = chi (Chinese) × 13.12335958

Example: 10 chi (Chinese) = 131.2335958 inches.

About these units

Chi (Chinese) (chi)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

The Chinese foot, one third of a meter in the modern market system. Ancient chi were much shorter, around 23 cm in the Han dynasty.

Span of the hand between thumb tip and forefinger tip is the origin usually given for the chi, which appeared in the Shang dynasty roughly three thousand years ago. Its size drifted for centuries. Surviving rulers and bronze standards suggest about 23 cm under the Qin and Han, and tables list values between roughly 17 and 20 cm for the Shang and Western Zhou. By the Qing, figures between about 31 and 36 cm were in use depending on trade and region.

A British report of 1864 shows how messy the later situation was: engineers' public works used about 32.3 cm, surveyors about 30.6 cm, and Guangzhou merchants about 37 cm. Republican China fixed the unit against the meter, and the figure used here is the modern market chi of exactly one third of a meter, about 33.3 cm. Ten cun make one chi and ten chi make one zhang. Hong Kong's chek is longer at 0.371475 m, and Taiwan follows the Japanese shaku.

1 chi (Chinese) = 0.3333333333 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Chi (unit); Wikipedia: Chinese units of measurement

Inch (in)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

1/12 of a foot. Defined as exactly 25.4 millimeters since 1959, when the US and Commonwealth countries agreed a common international inch.

Latin uncia, meaning one-twelfth, is the root of both inch and ounce, and it passed into Old English as ynce. Roman measurers divided their foot into twelve unciae, and the English inch kept that twelfth. After 1066 an inch was reckoned as three barleycorns, and a 1324 statute attributed to Edward II spelled out the definition as three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end lengthwise. For centuries the inch was simply a twelfth of a foot, or a thirty-sixth of a yard, and the US and UK each kept their own copy of the standard yard.

Those copies differed slightly until the 1959 international agreement fixed the yard at exactly 0.9144 meter, which made the inch exactly 25.4 millimeters. The US adopted it in 1959 and the UK ratified it in 1963, effective 1964. Today the inch is still the customary unit in the United States and Canada, and the UK keeps it on road signs. Worldwide it also names display diagonals, wheel rims, tire codes and pipe sizes.

1 inch = 0.0254 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Inch; Wikipedia: Yard; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

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