In geometric measurements, length most commonly refers to the longest dimension of an object.

In certain contexts, the term "length" is reserved for a certain dimension of an object along which the length is measured. For example it is possible to cut a length of a wire which is shorter than wire thickness. Another example is FET transistors, in which the channel width may be larger than channel length.

Length may be distinguished from height, which is vertical extent, and width or breadth, which are the distance from side to side, measuring across the object at right angles to the length.

Length is a measure of one dimension, whereas area is a measure of two dimensions (length squared) and volume is a measure of three dimensions (length cubed). In most systems of measurement, the unit of length is a fundamental unit, from which other units are defined.

Measurement has been important ever since man settled from his nomadic lifestyle and started using building materials; occupying land and trading with his neighbours. As society has become more technologically oriented much higher accuracies of measurement are required in an increasingly diverse set of fields, from micro-electronics to interplanetary ranging.

Samuel Pack "Sam" Elliott (born August 9, 1944) is an American actor. His rangy physique, thick horseshoe moustache, deep, resonant voice, and Western drawl lend to frequent casting as cowboys and ranchers.

Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, to a physical training instructor mother and a father who worked for the Department of the Interior. He moved from California to Oregon with his family during his teenage years, where he graduated from David Douglas High School in Portland. He attended Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, where he completed a two-year program and was cast as one of the leads in Guys and Dolls. The local newspaper suggested that Elliott should be a professional actor. Soon after, Elliott declared he was going to Hollywood to become a star. Elliott is a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Cal State L.A.. He worked in construction while studying acting in Los Angeles. Elliott also lived for a short time in Princeton, West Virginia.^{[citation needed]}

Katharine Juliet Ross (born January 29, 1940) is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she came to prominence as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, for which she won a Golden Globe award and received an Academy Award nomination.

She then starred as Etta Place in 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and won a BAFTA for role in Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here the same year. She has also starred in The Stepford Wives in 1975 and won another Golden Globe for Voyage of the Damned in 1977. She has established herself as an author, publishing several children's books.

Ross was born in Hollywood, California, when her father was in the Navy. He had also worked for the Associated Press. Her family later settled in Walnut Creek, California, east of San Francisco. She graduated from Las Lomas High School. Ross was a keen horse rider in her youth, and was friends with Casey Tibbs, a rodeo rider.

She studied at Santa Rosa Junior College for a year, where she had her introduction to acting in a production of The King and I. She dropped out of the course and moved to San Francisco to study acting. She joined The Actors Workshop and was with them for three years working as an understudy; for one role in Jean Genet's The Balcony she appeared nude on stage, and in 1964 she was cast by John Houseman as Cordelia in a production of King Lear. While at the Workshop, she began acting bit parts in television series in Los Angeles to earn extra money. She was brought to Hollywood by Metro, dropped, then picked up by Universal.

Leonard Barrie Corbin, known as Barry Corbin (born October 16, 1940), is an American actor with more than one hundred film, television and video game credits.

Corbin was born in Lamesa, the seat of Dawson County, south of Lubbock in west Texas. He is the son of the former Alma LaMerle Scott (1918–1994), a teacher, and Kilmer Blaine Corbin, Sr. (1919–1993), a school principal, a judge and a Democratic member of the Texas State Senate for two terms from 1949-1957. Corbin was named for author J. M. Barrie by his mom. He played football briefly in 8th grade, but soon moved to the arts, including acting and ballet classes. He graduated from Monterey High School. Corbin studied theatre arts at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. At 21, he joined the United States Marines, served two years and then returned to Tech.

Corbin began his career as a Shakespearean actor in the 1960s, but today he is more likely to be seen in the role of the local sheriff, military leader, or some other authority figure, though on occasion, he has effectively portrayed murderous villains as well. To moviegoers he is well remembered as General Beringer in WarGames, John Travolta's uncle in Urban Cowboy, co-starring with Clint Eastwood in Any Which Way You Can, or Roscoe Brown, who was July Johnson's bumbling deputy, in the acclaimed western Lonesome Dove.

Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987) was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals (albeit in non-singing and non-dancing roles), adventure tales, war films, and even a few horror and fantasy films. However, his most enduring image is that of the tall-in-the-saddle Western hero. Out of his more than 100 film appearances more than 60 were in Westerns; thus, "of all the major stars whose name was associated with the Western, Scott most closely identified with it."

Scott's more than thirty years as a motion picture actor resulted in his working with many acclaimed screen directors, including Henry King, Rouben Mamoulian, Michael Curtiz, John Cromwell, King Vidor, Alan Dwan, Fritz Lang, and Sam Peckinpah. He also worked on multiple occasions with prominent directors: Henry Hathaway (8 times), Ray Enright (7), Edwin R. Marin (7), Andre DeToth (6), and most notably, his seven film collaborations with Budd Boetticher.