From: Peter Kirk (peterkirk@qaya.org)
Date: Wed Aug 20 2003 - 09:34:51 EDT
On 20/08/2003 04:58, Kent Karlsson wrote:
>Mark Davis wrote:
>
>
>>awful. At least with inches, feet, and miles, the number of
>>feet per mile don't
>>vary depending on which mile one is talking about!
>>
>>
>
>A Danish mile is 7 km, a Swedish mile (a fairly popular
>distance measure here) is 10 km, and an English mile is
>a mere 1.6 km (approx.). So yes, the number of "feet" per
>mile does vary depending on which mile one is talking
>about (even when considering that the length of a "foot"
>originally depended on who's foot was used to measure). ;-)
>
> (Sorry for being OT)
> /kent k
>
>PS
>Originally the Swedish mile was marginally longer than 10 km,
>but via "nymil" (new mile) or "myriameter", the original term
>mile (mil) was adopted for the metric adapted distance.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Well, a Roman mile was originally a thousand (double) paces, which
depended on how long your legs were and how much of a hurry you were in.
It was standardised as marginally shorter than the English mile. I guess
English legs tended to be longer than Roman ones. But Swedish legs ... I
know many Swedes are tall, but not that much taller than us!
Your Swedish mile sounds more like what we call a league. From Websters
1913 edition, at http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/league:
> 1. A measure of length or distance, varying in different countries
> from about 2.4 to 4.6 English statute miles of 5.280 feet each, and
> used (as a land measure) chiefly on the continent of Europe, and in
> the Spanish parts of America. The marine league of England and the
> United States is equal to three marine, or geographical, miles of 6080
> feet each.
>
> Note: The English land league is equal to three English statute
> miles. The Spanish and French leagues vary in each country according
> to usage and the kind of measurement to which they are applied. The
> Dutch and German leagues contain about four geographical miles, or
> about 4.6 English statute miles.
>
Thank goodness that most of these measurements are obsolete!
-- Peter Kirk peter@qaya.org (personal) peterkirk@qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/
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