Links to Feet (li to ft)

1 link equals 0.66 feet exactly.

1 link = 0.66 feet

How to convert links to feet

To convert links to feet, multiply the number of links by 0.66. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply feet by 1.515151515 (rounded).

feet = links × 0.66

Example: 10 links = 6.6 feet.

About these units

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)

Foot (ft)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

12 inches. Defined as exactly 0.3048 meters. Still the standard unit for height, altitude in aviation and room dimensions in the US and UK.

Human anatomy supplied the idea: an adult foot is roughly 15 percent of body height. Ancient cultures turned that into standards, but not the same one. The Greek pous was about 302 mm, the standard Roman pes about 295.7 mm, and a Harappan foot of about 335 mm has been reported from the Indus Valley. Historically, a foot fell somewhere between about 250 and 335 mm. Charlemagne tried to standardize units around 790 with little lasting success, and in 1593 English law fixed the statute mile at 5,280 feet.

The modern foot dates from the 1959 International Yard and Pound Agreement, which defined the yard as exactly 0.9144 meter and so the foot as exactly 0.3048 meter; the UK adopted it on 1 January 1964. The US survey foot, defined in 1893 as 1200/3937 meter, was deprecated on 31 December 2022. Feet remain in everyday use for height and rooms in the US, and ISO shipping containers are defined in them. Aviation altitudes use them too: flight level 330 means 33,000 feet.

1 foot = 0.3048 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Foot (unit); Wikipedia: Mile; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

Related conversions

See all length units.