Kilometers to Shaku (km to shaku)

1 kilometer equals 3,300 shaku exactly.

1 kilometer = 3,300 shaku

How to convert kilometers to shaku

To convert kilometers to shaku, multiply the number of kilometers by 3,300. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply shaku by 0.000303030303 (rounded).

shaku = kilometers × 3,300

Example: 10 kilometers = 33,000 shaku.

About these units

Kilometer (km)

Metric (SI)Current unit

1,000 meters. The standard unit for road distances in most countries.

A name for 1,000 meters took a while to settle. In 1793 France's National Convention made the metre the sole French unit of length, and the first proposed name for the thousand-metre multiple was millaire. Everyday French usage then leaned on the myriametre, 10,000 meters, well into the 1800s. The Netherlands adopted the kilometre in 1817, under the local name mijl, and made it the only official unit of that size in 1867. In 1935 the CIPM dropped the myria- prefix, which left the kilometre as the standard unit for road-scale distances.

Kilo- is the SI prefix for a thousand, and the kilometre is now the preferred unit for land distances in most of the world, with the United States, the United Kingdom and Liberia among those that still use the mile. One kilometre is about 0.621 mile. The main span of Lisbon's 25 de Abril Bridge, at 1.013 km, gives a sense of the scale. Even its pronunciation has been argued over: in 1970 Australia's Metric Conversion Board made stress on the first syllable official, although Prime Minister Gough Whitlam argued for stress on the second. Military slang in several countries calls it a klick.

1 kilometer = 1,000 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Kilometre; Wikipedia: Metric prefix; BIPM: history of the metre

Shaku (shaku)

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

The Japanese foot, defined as exactly 10/33 meter (about 30.3 cm). Still the basis of carpentry and building dimensions in Japan.

Shaku is the Japanese reading of the character for chi, the Chinese foot, which began as a hand span from thumb tip to fingertip. Japan adopted the Chinese measuring system around the year 701, and the shaku became its basic length, growing over the centuries to roughly a third of a meter.

Several versions coexisted. The ordinary carpenter's shaku, the kanejaku, was about 30.2 to 30.3 centimeters. A longer kujirajaku, used for cloth and said to have been marked on whale baleen, measured 125/330 meter, near 37.9 centimeters. A longer variant, the korai-shaku, was about 1.17 times the modern value, about 35.5 centimeters.

The Weights and Measures Act of 24 March 1891 ended the variation for the standard unit by defining it as exactly 10/33 meter, about 30.3 centimeters or 11.93 inches. Official use was banned in 1966, yet the shaku still sets building dimensions: a standard three shaku panel is rounded to 910 millimeters.

1 shaku = 0.303030303 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Shaku (unit); Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement; Japanese Wikipedia: Shakkanho (尺貫法)

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