Inches to Links (in to li)

1 inch equals 0.1262626263 links (rounded).

1 inch = 0.1262626263 links

How to convert inches to links

To convert inches to links, multiply the number of inches by 0.1262626263. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply links by 7.92.

links = inches × 0.1262626263

Example: 10 inches = 1.262626263 links.

About these units

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

Link (li)

US & ImperialTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

One hundredth of a chain, 7.92 inches (0.201168 m). A surveying unit, one link of Gunter's chain.

Each link is the small piece that makes up a surveyor's chain, and the chain's hundred links gave decimal fractions to a system built on feet and yards. A single link measures 7.92 inches, or exactly 0.201168 m, because it is one hundredth of a 66-foot chain. Because of that, distances could be recorded in whole chains and links without fractions.

Edmund Gunter introduced the 100-link chain in England in 1620, and the link spread across the English-speaking world with it. Twenty-five links make a rod, 1,000 make a furlong and 8,000 make a mile. The exact size depends on which foot is used: the pre-1959 imperial foot gives about 201.1677 mm, the US survey foot about 201.1684 mm, and the international foot exactly 201.168 mm. Since the US survey foot was retired after 2022, the international value applies there too. Metric and electronic surveying replaced links in the twentieth century, though old deeds still use them.

1 link = 0.201168 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Link (unit); Wikipedia: Chain (unit)

Related conversions

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