The rod is still used as a unit of measurement for portaging in recreational canoeing, possibly because a rod is about the same length as a canoe.
A rod was established to be the combined total length of the left feet of the first sixteen men to leave church on Sunday.
The distance was standardized in 1607 as 5 yards, or 16.5 feet.
An acre is 40 rods by 4 rods, or the area a man and an ox could work in one day.
A rod is the same length as a perch and a pole.
