Military Jargon: What Distance is a "Click" ? (1 Viewer)

[Arthur S]

I've seen countless movies where military talk about such and such a target being so many "clicks" away. No one has ever been able to tell me what distance a "click" is.

Anyone?

 

[Chu Gai]

1 kilometer.

 

[Henry Gale]

Alittle more detail:


U.S. military slang for the kilometer (about 0.621 mile). Also spelled klick or klik. This unit became popular during the Vietnam War, but it was invented by U.S. troops in Germany during the 1950s. Occasionally it was used as a non-metric unit equal to 1000 yards (0.9144 kilometer).

BTW..thanks for asking Arthur. I spent 3 years in the Corps, 1 in Nam...and never had a clue what a "click" was.

 

[Shaughan]

I think the term "CLICK" came from the fact that 1 click on the standard distance measuring caliper was 1 kilometer.

 

[Arthur S]

Thanks to all. Especially to Henry Gale.

Now I know it is either one kilo or 1,000 yards, depending on what they want it to be in any particular setting

 

[Christ Reynolds]

urban dictionary is good for stuff like this.

CJ

 

[Yee-Ming]

I would've thought by now it always means 1 kilometre. Is 1,000 yards as a measure ever used anymore, if ever?

Also, at least to me, "1 kilo" would mean a kilogram (which is about 2.2 lbs); when referring to distance it's either "1km", sometimes "1k", and if in the military the point of this thread, "1 click".

 

[Arthur S]

Yee-Ming

I was mostly teasing about 1,000 yards, but when you are dealing with Hollywood, anything is possible.

Yeah, I thought about using "kilo" after I wrote it but figured that for this purpose it would pass muster

Next time I'll use 1km.

 

[Keith Paynter]

Arthur, yards is a Imperial measurement, metres a Metric measurement, and their lengths differ.

 

[Sami Kallio]

That's correct in everyday terminology (technically not).

Just to refresh everyone's memory...


10^n Prefiks Symbol
24 yotta Y
21 zetta Z
18 exa E
15 peta P
12 tera T
9 giga G
6 mega M
3 kilo k
2 hekto h
1 deka da

−1 desi d
−2 centi c
−3 milli m
−6 mikro µ
−9 nano n
−12 pico p
−15 femto f
−18 atto a
−21 zepto z
−24 yocto y

 

[Scott McGillivray]

*ahem*

"deci" not desi
"micro" not mikro

Prefix

Symbol

 

[Sami Kallio]

I'm European, and the correct term is SI, not metric.

 

[Yee-Ming]

When referring to the numbers that are associated with Mega, Giga and Tera, it's "million", "billion" and "trillion". What's the word that's associated with the next one up, Peta? I vaguely recall a "quadrillion". Not that any country's GNP or national budget/debt will approach a quadrillion yet, but sooner or later... and after all supercomputers are already in the "petaflop" range.