Sun to Inches (sun to in)

1 sun equals 1.193032689 inches (rounded).

1 sun = 1.193032689 inches

How to convert sun to inches

To convert sun to inches, multiply the number of sun by 1.193032689. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply inches by 0.8382.

inches = sun × 1.193032689

Example: 10 sun = 11.93032689 inches.

About these units

Sun (sun)

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

One tenth of a shaku, about 3.03 cm. The Japanese 'inch', still used in carpentry.

Sun is the Japanese reading of the Chinese character for cun, the Chinese inch, which was traditionally the width of a person's thumb at the knuckle. Japan took the whole system over from China, and the sun kept its place as one tenth of the foot-like shaku.

Because the shaku was fixed in 1891 at 10/33 meter, the sun works out to 1/33 meter, about 30.3 millimeters or 1.19 inches. That makes it about 19 percent longer than a modern inch. Before the legal definition, the size drifted slightly between eras and regions, so older measurements in sun carry some uncertainty.

Smaller steps below it, such as the bu, divide it further. Today the sun survives mainly in carpentry, joinery and traditional crafts, where dimensions are still quoted in shaku and sun before being translated into the millimeters on modern rulers.

1 sun = 0.0303030303 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Cun (unit); Wikipedia: Shaku (unit); Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement

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

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