How many chains are in 1 light-year?

One light-year contains approximately 4.703 x 1014 chains (about 470 trillion).

How many light-years is 1 chain?

One chain equals approximately 2.125 x 10-15 light-years.

Is this conversion useful?

No. Land surveying and interstellar measurement serve completely different purposes at completely different scales.

Light-years to Chains (ly to ch) Converter

1 ly = 470,290,000,000,000 ch

1 Light-year equals 470,290,000,000,000 Chains (1 ly = 470,290,000,000,000 ch). Convert Light-years to Chains with formula, table, and examples.

One light-year equals approximately 4.703 x 10¹⁴ chains (about 470 trillion). A light-year measures interstellar distances; a chain (66 feet / 20.12 m) measures English land parcels. These units have never interacted outside of conversion tables.

How to Convert Light-years to Chains

ch = ly × 470,290,000,000,000

Multiply the value in Light-years by 470,290,000,000,000

Take your value in Light-years
Multiply by 470,290,000,000,000
Read the result in Chains

Common Light-years to Chains Conversions

Light-years (ly)	Chains (ch)	Status
1 × 10⁻¹¹ ly	4,702.9003 ch
1 × 10⁻¹⁰ ly	47,029.003 ch
1 × 10⁻⁹ ly	470,290.0299 ch
1 × 10⁻⁸ ly	4,702,900.2985 ch
1 × 10⁻⁷ ly	47,029,002.9855 ch
0.000001 ly	470,290,029.8547 ch
0.00001 ly	4,702,900,298.5469 ch
0.0001 ly	47,029,002,985.4689 ch
0.001 ly	470,290,029,854.6886 ch
0.01 ly	4,702,900,000,000 ch
0.1 ly	47,029,000,000,000 ch
1 ly	470,290,000,000,000 ch
4.24 ly	1.99403 × 10¹⁵ ch

Good to Know About Light-years to Chains Conversion

Gunter invented his chain in the 1620s for English farmland. The light-year concept emerged in the 1830s for stellar distances. These units were born 200 years apart for purposes separated by 15 orders of magnitude. They have nothing in common except being human inventions.

Light-years to Chains: What You Need to Know

A chain is 2.125 x 10^-15 light-years. Proxima Centauri at 4.24 light-years is about 1.99 x 10¹⁵ chains away (2 quadrillion chains). If Gunter had tried to survey the distance to the nearest star with his chain, he would have been very busy.

What is a Light-year? ly

The distance light travels in one Julian year (365.25 days) in vacuum. Exactly 9,460,730,472,580,800 meters. Used for interstellar distances.

Astronomical interstellar distances astronomy popular science

Learn more about Light-year →

What is a Chain? ch

Exactly 66 feet or 4 rods (20.1168 m). Invented by Edmund Gunter for land surveying. 80 chains make one mile. Still used in US public land surveys.

Imperial land surveying US public land

Learn more about Chain →

Going the other way? Use our Chains to Light-years converter.

Light-years to Chains FAQ

One light-year contains approximately 4.703 x 10¹⁴ chains (about 470 trillion).
One chain equals approximately 2.125 x 10^-15 light-years.
No. Land surveying and interstellar measurement serve completely different purposes at completely different scales.

Non-Frequently Asked Questions About Light-years to Chains

Questions nobody should ask - but someone did.

A cricket pitch is 1 chain. Proxima Centauri is about 2 quadrillion chains away. That is 2 quadrillion cricket pitches end-to-end. Even the ICC cannot schedule that many matches.
A chain has 100 links. Millions of chains were manufactured over 400 years. Even if 100 million chains existed (10 billion links at 7.92 inches each), they would span about 200,000 km - less than the Moon distance. Stars are much farther. Humanity has not produced enough chain.
A surveyor laying chains end-to-end at 1 chain per minute would need 470 trillion minutes = 894 million years. The dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago. Your survey would start before T. rex and you would still not be done.