Lieues to Yards (lieue to yd)

1 lieue (Paris league) equals 4,262.984055 yards (rounded).

1 lieue (Paris league) = 4,262.984055 yards

How to convert lieues to yards

To convert lieues to yards, multiply the number of lieues by 4,262.984055. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply yards by 0.0002345774667 (rounded).

yards = lieues × 4,262.984055

Example: 10 lieues = 42,629.84055 yards.

About these units

Lieue (Paris League) (lieue)

French (Ancien Régime)Historical unit (no longer in standard use)

2,000 toises, about 3.898 km: the Paris league of 1674. The later post league (lieue de poste, 1737) was longer, at 2,200 toises or about 4.288 km.

Lieue descends from the Celtic league that the Romans adopted as the leuga. The Gallic version, about one and a half Roman miles, replaced the Roman mile as the official road distance in Gaul and Germania under Septimius Severus. In France the word later covered several different distances rather than one.

The figure used here, about 3,898 metres, is 2,000 toises, which Wikipedia's article on traditional French units calls the Paris league of 1674. The lieue de poste, which measured stages on the royal coach and mail routes, was set at 2,200 toises in 1737, about 4.288 kilometres. Wikipedia's league article lists the post league at the shorter 3,898 metres, so its two articles disagree about which league carried that name.

Other French leagues ranged from 10,000 to 14,400 pieds, or roughly 3.25 to 4.68 kilometres. The metric lieue of exactly 4,000 metres was used in the customary system between 1812 and 1840. Since the unit was never standardized, any conversion to kilometres should name which lieue is meant.

1 lieue (Paris league) = 3,898.07262 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: League (unit); Wikipedia: Traditional French units of measurement; Wikipedia: Toise

Yard (yd)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

3 feet or 36 inches, exactly 0.9144 meters. Used for sports fields, fabric and short distances in the US and UK.

Yard descends from the Old English gerd or gyrd, meaning a branch, stave or measuring rod. It first appears in the late seventh-century laws of Ine of Wessex, though there it names a tax unit, the yardland. Around 959 to 963 King Edgar ordered that the measure held at Winchester be used throughout his realm, the earliest record of a prototype. A story that Henry I fixed the yard as the distance from his nose to his thumb is later folklore, and the true origin, whether pace, cubit or waist, remains speculative.

Britain defined the Imperial Standard Yard in 1824 as the distance between two marks on a brass rod at 62 degrees Fahrenheit. A fire in 1834 damaged the standard, a replacement was made in 1845, and the Weights and Measures Act 1855 recognized it. The 1959 international agreement then fixed the yard at exactly 0.9144 meter. Today it measures American and Canadian football fields, association football pitches and cricket pitches, appears on UK road signs for short distances, and is still used to sell fabric in the US and UK.

1 yard = 0.9144 meters (exactly).

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

Related conversions

See all length units.