Linear Footage

Date: 04/20/2002 at 23:18:59
From: Pat King
Subject: Linear Footage

There is a fence I want to buy, but the ad says "4 foot tall, 50 
linear feet. What is a linear foot compared to a regular foot? How 
long is this fence? 

Thank you!

Date: 04/21/2002 at 10:56:06
From: Doctor Sarah
Subject: Re: Linear Footage

Hi Pat - thanks for writing to Dr. Math.

It's 50 feet long.  A linear foot is a foot in length.

From Russ Rowlett's _How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement_:

   http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictL.html 

linear foot (or "lineal" foot) (ft or lf)
terms used loosely to describe a one-foot length of any long, narrow 
object. The correct term is linear foot; the word "lineal" refers to a 
line of ancestry, not to length. Boards, pipes, and fencing are 
typical objects measured and sold by the linear foot. In the moving 
industry, a linear foot is a one-foot length of a moving van, usually 
a volume of about 72 cubic feet (roughly 2 cubic meters). Occasionally 
the term "linear foot" is used as an alternate name for the board 
foot, but this is appropriate only if the board is 12 inches wide. 
Terms such as linear meter and linear yard are used in a similar way 
to indicate one-meter or one-yard lengths.

- Doctor Sarah, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/