This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010) 1 rod = SI units 5.0292 m 502.92 cm US customary / Imperial units 5.5000 yd 16.500 ft The rod is a unit of length equal to 5.5 yards, 5.0292 metres, 16.5 feet, or 1⁄320 of a statute mile. A rod is the same length as a perch or a pole. In old English, the term lug is also used.12 Contents 1 History 2 Modern use 3 Area and volume 4 See also 5 References History

The lengths of the perch (one rod) and chain (four rods) were standardized in 1607 by Edmund Gunter.3 The length is equal to the standardized length of the ox goad used by medieval English ploughmen;4 fields were measured in acres, which were one chain (four rods) by one furlong (in the United Kingdom, ten chains).5 Because the furlong was "one plough's furrow long", and a furrow was the length a plough team was to be driven without resting, the length of the furlong and the area of the acre vary regionally, nominally due to differing soil types (causing differences in how far a team could be driven until it needed to rest). In England the acre was 4,840 square yards, but in Scotland it was 6,150 square yards and in Ireland 7,840 square yards.citation needed In all three countries, fields were divided in acres and thus the furlong became a measure commonly used in horse racing, archery, and civic planning.citation needed A sign at the City Hall in Münster, Germany noting that the bar shown is one "Prussian Half Rod" (1.883 m) long

Bars of metal one rod long were used as standards of length when surveying land. One example of a surveyor's rod is a one-piece metal bar encased in a cylindrical canvas tube (to keep the sun from heating it, which would make it increase in length) with a piece of the semiprecious gemstone jasper at each end of the rod (to prevent wear of the metal bar).citation needed The rod was still in use as a common unit of measurement in the mid-19th century, when Henry David Thoreau used it frequently when describing distances in his work Walden. Modern use The rod was phased out as a legal unit of measurement in the United Kingdom as part of a ten-year metrication process that began on 24 May 1965.6

Despite no longer being in widespread use, the rod is still used in certain specialized fields. In recreational canoeing, maps measure portages (overland paths where canoes must be carried) in rods; typical canoes are approximately one rod long.7 In the United Kingdom, the sizes of allotment gardens continue to be measured in square poles in some areas, sometimes being referred to simply as poles rather than square poles.8 In Vermont, the default right-of-way width of state and town highways and trails is three rods (15.0876 m).9 Rods can also be sometimes found on the legal descriptions of tracts of land in the United States, following the "metes and bounds" method of land survey;10 as shown in this actual legal description of rural real estate: LEGAL DESCRIPTION: Commencing 45 rods East and 44 rods North of Southwest corner of Southwest 1/4 of Southwest 1/4; thence North 36 rods; thence East 35 rods; thence South 36 rods; thence West 35 rods to the place of beginning, Manistique Township, Schoolcraft County, Michigan.11 Area and volume

The terms pole, perch and rod have been used as units of area, and perch is also used as a unit of volume. See square perch and rood. See also Perch Furlong anthropic units Imperial units References ^ Bonten, JHM (2007-01-19). "Anglo-Saxon and Biblical to Metrics Conversions". Surveyor + Chain + British-Nautical. http://home.kpn.nl/jhm.bonten/tables/anglosaxon/napolangsax.html#linsur. Retrieved 2010-11-01.  ^ Rowlett, Russ (2008-12-15). "lug [1]". How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictL.html. Retrieved 2010-11-01.  ^ "Rod, unit of measure". UnitConversion.org. UnitConversion.org. http://www.unitconversion.org/length/rod-conversion.html. Retrieved 2010-11-01.  ^ Rowlett, Russ (2002-04-25). "rod (rd) [1]". How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictR.html#rod. Retrieved 2010-11-01.  ^ Rowlett, Russ (2008-12-03). "acre (ac or A)". How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictA.html. Retrieved 2010-11-01.  ^ Consumer and Competition Policy Directorate (1968) Report (1968) by the Standing Joint Committee on Metrication. Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom). (Report). Retrieved 2010-11-01. ^ "Canoe Glossary and Clickable Canoe". OutdoorPlaces.com. Michael Thiessen. http://www.outdoorplaces.com/Features/Paddle/pickcanoe/newcanoe7.htm#rod. Retrieved 2010-11-01.  ^ "Allotments". Watford Borough Council. http://www.watford.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/environment-and-planning/parks-and-open-spaces/allotments/. Retrieved 2009-10-05.  ^ Width of highways and trails. 19 V.S.A. § 702 (Vermont Statutes Online) (Added 1985, No. 269 [Adj. Sess.], § 1.). ^ Shelton, Neil. "How to Read Land Descriptions". homestead.org. p. 5. http://www.homestead.org/NeilShelton/Legals/HowToReadLandDescriptions.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-07.  ^ "Lake View Parcel $198 Down $198 Month Incredible 8 Acre Parcel!". EagleStar. American Eagle Star. http://www.eaglestar.net/ndu.html. Retrieved 2010-11-01.