The measurement of the inch and one foot were supposedly determined by a king. What is the history of one mile?
2006-07-10 14:30:51 · 4 answers · asked by Wannaknow 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Trivia
From WikiPedia:
A unit of distance called a mile was first used by the Romans and originally denoted a distance of 1,000 (double) steps ("mille passuum" in Latin), which amounted, at approximately 29 inches (0.74 m) per (single) step, to 1,618 yards (1,480 m), or 5,000 Roman feet, per mile.
2006-07-10 14:32:38 · answer #1 · answered by glyphic 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The "mile" was a roman invention. A mile is a thousand strides long. Given a Roman stride of 5 feet, and you get around 5000 feet. When this got brought to England when Rome occupied and founded London, the concept of a furlong came up, and a mile was 8 furlongs. This was little over 5000 feet. (5280 feet). This caused controversy, so in 1593 parliment officially made the mile 5280 feet.
2006-07-10 14:36:05 · answer #2 · answered by Atom 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
then got knocked on the head and some dude cut off 5280 feet and put them in a line and the last foot was form a guy named miles and someone heard the name miles and then called the whole thing a mile :-D
2006-07-10 14:38:42 · answer #3 · answered by xirekaj 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Same as the first answer. It was measured by 1,000 steps.
2006-07-10 14:35:47 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋