Cable length
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A cable length or cable's length is a nautical unit of measure equal to one tenth of a nautical mile or 100 fathoms, or sometimes 120 fathoms. The unit is named after the length of a ship's anchor cable in the age of sail. The definition varies:
- International: 1⁄10 nautical mile, or 185.2 m
- Imperial (Admiralty): 1⁄10 Admiralty mile, or 608 ft (185.32 m), about 101 fathoms
- The traditional British fathom varied from 5½ feet to 7 feet in the Merchant Navy.
- U.S. customary (US Navy): 120 fathoms (720 feet, 219.456 m)
References
- Fenna, Donald (2002), "cable, cable length, cable's length", A Dictionary of Weights, Measures, and Units, Oxford: University Press, ISBN 0-19-860522-6. Also "fathom", from the same work.
- Navy Slang: Cable – Curry, Royal Navy, retrieved February 2011.
See also
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