fathom
Sign in to saveA fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an international standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally accepted non-SI unit. Historically, it was the maritime measure of depth in the English-speaking world but, apart from within the US, charts now use metres.
Key facts
- Unit.name
- fathom
- Unit.image
- Regensburg - Altes Rathaus - Masse - 2016.jpg
- Unit.caption
- Standard units in Regensburg: the metal rods are (from left to right) a fathom (klafter), foot (schuch, Modern German Schuh "shoe") and ell (öln, Modern German Elle).
- Unit.standard
- imperial/US units
- Unit.quantity
- length
- Unit.units1
- imperial/US units
- Unit.units2
- SI unit equivalent
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
Show 3 more facts
- Wikidata SPARQL query equivalent
- wd:Q6502423 p:P2370/psn:P2370 [wikibase:quantityAmount ?source; wikibase:quantityUnit ?base]. ?item p:P2370/psn:P2370 [wikibase:quantityAmount ?target; wikibase:quantityUnit ?base]. BIND(?source / ?target as ?value)
- conversion to SI unit
- 1.8288
- Commons category
- Fathom (unit of length)
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Article
17 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Forms
- Ancient fathoms
- International fathom
- British fathom
- Other definitions
- Derived units
- Use of the fathom
- Water depth
- Line length
- Burial
- On land
- See also
- References
- Citations
- Bibliography
- External links
A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an international standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally accepted non-SI unit. Historically, it was the maritime measure of depth in the English-speaking world but, apart from within the US, charts now use metres.
There are two yards (6 feet) in an imperial fathom. Originally the span of a man's outstretched arms, the size of a fathom has varied slightly depending on whether it was defined as a thousandth of an (Admiralty) nautical mile or as a multiple of the imperial yard. Formerly, the term was used for any of several units of length varying around .
On the map
2 mapped locations