Convert Light Years (ly) to Fathoms (ftm)

The light year is a unit of length in the Astronomical system of units. It uses the symbol ly.

Often confused with a unit of time as it contains the word "year", it is actually defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as the amount of distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year (365.25 days).

Using the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s or 'c') and the Julian year (as apposed to the Gregorian year which is 365.2425 days), we can equivalate 1 light year as 9,460,730,472,580,800 metres or ≈ 9.46 trillion kilometres.

The fathom is a unit of length in the imperial unit system and uses the symbol ftm.

One fathom is equal to 6 feet or 1.8288m.

The phrase fathom derives from an old English derivative of a Viking / Danish word "favn" meaning emracing a pair of arms or a pair of oustretched hands. The fathom is mostly used in the nautical world to describe depths of water.