Convert Hectometer (hm) to Aln (aln) instantly.
About these units
Hectometer (hm)
A hectometer is equal to 100 meters, and though rarely used colloquially, it remains relevant in specific scientific and geographic applications. In meteorology, cloud ceiling heights and visibility distances are sometimes expressed in hectometers. In agriculture, field lengths and irrigation layouts may also be measured in hectometers, offering a compromise between the small meter unit and the more expansive kilometer. Because it aligns nicely with the metric system's decimal structure, the hectometer appears in statistical summaries or technical documents that benefit from uniform numerical scaling. Its relative rarity in day-to-day speech stems from the fact that kilometers are generally more intuitive when discussing larger distances, but in some countries, especially in Europe, hectometers still appear on roadside markers.
Aln (aln)
The aln was a traditional Swedish unit of length equal to roughly 59.4 cm, though its exact value varied slightly by region and period. It belongs to the broader family of "ell" measurements used across Europe, originally based on the length of a human forearm. The aln played a crucial role in Swedish commerce, especially in the textile industry, where cloth was measured by stretching it along standardized rods or boards marked in aln lengths. Because such goods were often woven locally and traded regionally, the aln helped regulate and unify commercial practices before the adoption of the metric system. Although obsolete today, the aln survives in historical texts, architectural references, and Scandinavian museum records. Understanding the aln helps scholars interpret pre-modern construction records, land measurements, and traditional clothing industries, revealing a great deal about everyday life in early Sweden.