Originally Posted by
Steve Demuth
My old man thought, at least with respect to land measurement, in rods. A rod is 16 1/2 feet, which is an absurd measurement, but which is equal to 1 / 160th of half a mile, which means that a strip of land 1 rod wide in a quarter section (which is 1/2 mile square) is an acre. Alternatively, one acre = 160 square rods. A furlong is 40 rods, so a square furlong is 10 acres.
So, in the English system, you had 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 5 1/2 yards to a rod, and 40 rods to a furlong, and furlongs to a mile. Nothing confusing about that.