Lignes to Kilometers (ligne to km)

1 ligne equals 0.000002255829062 kilometers (rounded).

1 ligne = 0.000002255829062 kilometers

How to convert lignes to kilometers

To convert lignes to kilometers, multiply the number of lignes by 0.000002255829062. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply kilometers by 443,296.

kilometers = lignes × 0.000002255829062

Example: 10 lignes = 0.00002255829062 kilometers.

About these units

Ligne (ligne)

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

One twelfth of a pouce (about 2.256 mm). The old French line; watchmakers still quote movement sizes in lignes.

Ligne is simply the French word for line, and the unit sat at the bottom of the Paris measuring ladder: twelve lignes made one pouce, and 144 made one pied du roi. Using the figure adopted in the 1799 metric law, in which one metre equals 443.296 lignes, a ligne comes to about 2.2558 millimetres.

Tailors, cabinetmakers and instrument makers of the Ancien Régime used it for fine dimensions that an inch was too coarse to express. A British line of one twelfth of an English inch also existed until 1824, so the two were similar in spirit but not identical, since the French inch was the longer one.

The unit outlived the monarchy in a few trades. French and Swiss watchmakers still describe the size of a movement or case in lignes, written with a triple prime mark, and milliners measure hat ribbon in it. The button trade uses a different ligne of one fortieth of an inch, about 0.635 millimetres, so the context always has to be checked.

1 ligne = 0.002255829062 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Ligne (unit); Wikipedia: Pied du roi; Wikipedia: Traditional French units of measurement

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

Related conversions

See all length units.