Who invented the STATUTE mile?
Well?
Best I've heard so far is 100 lengths of a centurions sword, but I'm sure the smarty-pants in here can do better than that! Cheers, Affangu |
A moments thought reveals that the swords in question would have to be over 50 foot long, which would be a handful even though these guys were pretty tough. ON the Roman theme though I think it had something to do with the Roman armies marching habits. It does not have a geographical basis like the Nautical mile or Kilometre |
A thousand paces of a roman soldier.
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I was always taught that, originally, a mile was the Roman legions' thousand paces - hence the name! (mile= a thousand, hence the M for a thousand in Roman numerals)
This, naturally, resulted in a Roman mile being rather less than 1,760 yards. So, the next question, of course, is how did it get from the Roman mile to the statute mile? Can I phone a friend please? :) ------------------ Breeding Per Dementia Unto Something Jolly Big, Toodle-pip |
Apparantly the Roman army had chaps specially trained to pace out distances exactly, which enabled one of those famous Roman chaps to work out the diameter of the Earth, by comparing angles cast by sticks at local noon.
Clever chaps eh, apparantly the end result was only about 1000 miles out, which cosidering the baseline they had to work and the equipment is not a bad result. No help on the Statute mile thing though |
It originated from the Roman mille passus, or "thousand paces," which measured 5,000 Roman feet.
About the year 1500 the "old London" mile was defined as eight furlongs. At the time, the furlong, measured by a larger northern (German) foot, was 625 feet, and thus the mile equaled 5,000 feet. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the mile gained an additional 280 feet--to 5,280--under a statute of 1593 that confirmed the use of a shorter foot that made the length of the furlong 660 feet. Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the earth by the method you described. He paid someone to measure the distance from Alexandria to Aswan. He had been staring down a well there - that fascination with holes in the ground again :) - and noticed the shadow thing. ------------------ -.-- --.- -..- |
Code Blue - you forgot to add ...
Elsewhere in the British Isles, longer miles were used, including the Irish mile of 6,720 feet and the Scottish mile of 5,940 feet. A nautical mile is the length on the Earth's surface of one minute of arc, or, by international definition, 1,852 m (6,076.12 feet; 1.1508 statute miles). The measure remains in universal use in both marine and air transportation. The knot is one nautical mile per hour. Thanks to Britannica.com !! |
A mile was the distance of a thousand double paces.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old English ml, from Latin mlia (passuum), a thousand (double paces), a Roman mile pl. of mlle, thousand. By using the following extremely high-tech scientific method, it can be calculated precisely! 1 Statute mile = 8 furlongs 1 Furlong = 10 Chains 1 Chain = 22 Yards Hence 22x10x8 = 1760 Yards Now all we need to know is the origin of the Yard! The basic unit of English length is the yard, which was originally taken as the distance between Henry I's (1068-1135) nose and the tip of his outstretched arm. ;) |
One thousand double paces makes sense, bit less than a metre per pace. It would not be 1000 paces as they were pretty well laden with gear and 5 foot or 1.75 metres per pace seems a bit far, but half that seems fair. The nautical mile changes by a few feet as it is a minute of arc and the earth is not round, so there is a difference between the polar and equatorial measurements for it. The metre of course is 1/10 000 of the distance between the pole and equater, and they sorted that out way back. |
Icarus:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Thanks to Britannica.com !!</font> ..Got it from OCB in JB :) :)Research = plagiarism from more than one source. :) ------------------ -.-- --.- -..- edited for customary appalling typing [This message has been edited by Code Blue (edited 30 January 2001).] |
But you'm be forgettin' the 'country mile', you'm bein! 'Eee be quoit a few yards, 'ee be!! But we'm invented decimal units, 'cos 10 chains be 1 furlong, and 1 acre be 1 furlong by 1 chain or 10 square chains!! Oh arr...
..an' 'twas old St Atute who decided that 8 furlongs were quite enough fer 1 mile!! |
Hey BEagle, No fair using a country mile because everybody, at least if they ever asked a local how far it was to the nearest pub, knows that the country mile is a variable.
Which way do you want to get to the pub. The short way or the pretty way? ------------------ |
ARRR - and all rivers be no deeper than halfway up a duck!!
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Statute Mile: The Statue you can see from
a mile away. http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/tongue.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif Statute Mile: The italian fellow asking his friend Mile if its him out there. http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/tongue.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif ------------------ Trop haut, trop bas, trop tard!!! |
Imperial Units of Length:
(1 foot = 0.3048m(E)) UK Statute League = 1 UK Statute Mile = Land = 3 Pole = Perch = Rod = 960 Yard = 5280 Cubit = 10,560 Foot = 15,840 Span = 21,120 Hand = 47,520 Palm = 63,360 Inch = 190,080 UK Line = 2,280,960 Other UK units of length are: Skein = 360 feet Bolt = 120 feet Shackle = 90 feet Rope = 20 feet Ell = 45 inches Nail = 9 inches Span = 9 inches * see above Barleycorn = 1/3 inch Calibre = 0.01 inch Mil = 0.001 inch UK Nautical Measures are: Nautical League = 1 Nautical Mile = 3 Nautical Cable = 30 Nautical Chain = 1216 Fathom = 3040 Yard = 6080 Foot = 18,240 Inch = 218,880 UK Surveyors' Measures: (All now obsolete except Furlong in horse racing) Statute Mile = 1 Furlong = 8 Gunter's Chain = 80 Rod = 320 Yard = 1760 Foot = 5280 Gunter's Link = 8000 And nothing to do with length, but I like the names, the following are the UK Imperial units of Liquid and dry measure. Liquid: Wey = 1 Chaldron = 10/9 Bag = 40/3 Bucket = 80 Gallon = 320 Pottle = 640 Quart = 1280 Pint = 2560 Gill = 10,240 Fluid Ounce = 51,200 Fluid Dram = 409,600 Minim = 24,576,000 Dry: Wey = 1 Chaldron = 10/9 Sack = 40/3 Bushel = 40 Bucket = 80 Peck = 160 Gallon = 320 Quart = 1280 Pint = 2560 Other UK capacity units are: Last = 640 Gallons* (*=UK) Butt = 108 Puncheon = 70 Seam = Quarter = 64 Hogshead = 63 Coomb = 32 Kilderkin = 18 Strike = 16 Firkin = 9 Roquille = Noggin = Quarten = 1 Gill (UK) Drop = 1 Minim (UK) Obsolete Measures: UK Beer, Wine & Spirits: Octave (Whisky) = 16 Gallons (approx) Quarter = 17-30 Aum (Hock) = 30-32 Hogshead = 44-60 Hogshead (Madeira) = 45-48 Hogshead (Brandy) = 56-61 Puncheon = 70-120 Pipe = 90-120 Butt = 108-117 Tonneau (Tun) = 190-200 Stuck = 260-265 Beer only: Tun = 1 Butt = 2 Puncheon = 3 Hogshead = 4 Barrel = 6 Firkin = 24 Pin = 48 Gallon = 216 Wine: French Name // Reputed Quarts //UK Gallons English Name (Bottles) Nabuchodonosor // 20 // 10/3 Nabuchadnezzar Balthasar // 16 // 8/3 Belshazzar Salmanazar // 12 // 2 Salmarazd Mathusalem // 9 // 3/2 Methuselah Rehoboam // 6 // 1 Rehoboam Jeroboam // 4 // 2/3 Jeroboam Magnum // 2 // 1/3 Magnum Bouteille Champenoise //1 // 1/6 Reputed Quart [This message has been edited by ORAC (edited 04 February 2001).] |
Thanks for that. I now know what a Firkin is!!. Many Pubs use the word and I thought maybe it was a version of the other 4 letter word starting with F. But no it is a volume of beer. What a great source of useless information this thread is :)
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The Roman mile was, however somewhat shorter at (in todays money) 1472 metres....
1 Millarium (mile) = 125 / 32 Actus (chains) = 500 Decempa (perch) = 1000 Passus (double pace) = 2000 Gradus (single pace) = 10000 / 3 Cubitus (cubits) = 4000 Palmipes = 5000 Pes (feet) = 20000 Palmus (hands) = 60000 Uncia (inches) = 80000 Digitus (fingers). Which says a lot about "what the Romans have done for us". G |
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