Mile

Mile, a terrestrial measure of length, is derived from the Roman milleiare, which contained 1000 paces (mille passuum) of 5 Roman feet each, the pace being the length of the step made by one foot. The Roman foot being between 11.65 and 11.62 English inches, the Roman mile was thus less than the present English mile by from 142 to 144 yards. The length of the modern mile in different countries exhibits a remarkable diversity not satisfactorily accounted for. Before the time of Elizabeth, scientific writers made use of a mile of 5000 English feet, from the notion that this was the Roman mile, forgetting the difference in value between the English and Roman foot. The present statute mile was incidentally defined by an act passed in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Elizabeth to be '8 furlongs of 40 perches of 16½ feet each'—i.e. 1760 yards of 3 feet each; and it has since retained this value. The geographical or nautical mile (see KNOT) is the sixtieth part of a degree of the equator (=1.151 English statute mile), and is employed by the mariners of all nations; but in Germany the geographical mile denotes $\backslash frac\{1\}\{5\}$th part of a degree in the equator, or 4 nautical miles.