Shaku 尺
About the Shaku
The shaku is the Japanese foot, fixed by the 1891 Weights and Measures Act at exactly 10/33 of a metre. It descends from the Chinese chi. Japan made the metric system its sole legal system in most fields from 1959, but carpenters and makers of traditional instruments such as the shakuhachi still use it.
Related Units
Chi
尺1/3 m (market chi)
The Chinese chi, often translated as foot, was set at exactly one third of a metre in the market system of 1929. Its...
Li
里500 m (market li)
The Chinese li is now exactly 500 metres. Historically its length changed many times, but it was always the main unit...
Metre
mBase unit; c = 299,792,458 m/s exactly
The metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. It was first defined by...
Ångström
Å1 Å = 10⁻¹⁰ m = 0.1 nm (exact)
The ångström equals one ten-billionth of a metre, roughly the size of an atom. It is named after the Swedish physicist...