A
mile is any of several
units of
distance, or, in physics terminology, of
length. Today, one mile is mainly equal to about 1609
m on land and 1852 m at sea and in the air, but see below for the details.
The abbreviation for mile is
mi.
Current definitions
The meanings of
mile that are commonly used today are:
- The statute mile, or more specifically
- * The international mile is the one typically meant when the word mile is used without qualification. It is defined to be precisely 1760 international yards (by definition, 0.9144 meter each); it is therefore exactly 1609.344 meters. It is used in the United States and the United Kingdom as part of the Imperial system of units. The international mile is equivalent to 8 furlongs, or 80 chains, or 5280 international feet.
- * The U.S. survey mile is precisely equal to 5280 U.S. survey feet or 6336/3937 kilometers or, approximately 1609.347 meters. One international mile is precisely equal to 0.999 998 survey mile. The survey mile is used by the United States Public Land Survey System.
- The international nautical mile is defined to be exactly 1852 meters. It is used universally for aviation, naval and maritime purposes and originated from the geographical mile.
- In Norway and Sweden, a distance of 10 kilometers is most commonly referred to as a mile, see mil.
History
Throughout history many units of length named
mile have been used, with widely differing definitions, originating with the
Roman mile of approximately 1479 meters. A Roman mile consisted of 1000 "double steps", or two strides by a Roman soldier. The Latin term for each such double stride is a
passus having a length of 5 Roman feet or approximately 4.83 English feet. The word
mile itself has been derived from the words
mille passus (plural
milia passuum), a thousand paces. Along the roads built by the Romans throughout
Europe, it was common to erect a stone every mile to announce the distance to Rome, the so-called milestones. The noun
milliarium (plural
milliaria), designating a milestone, was also used as a figurative alternative for
mile.
In navigation, the
geographical mile was commonly used, defined as 1
minute of arc along the
Earth's
equator, approximately equal to 1855 meters.
The name
statute mile goes back to Queen
Elizabeth I of England who redefined the mile from 5000 feet to 8
furlongs (5280 feet) by statute in 1593.
When the international mile became legal in mid-1959, the survey mile was retained for measurements derived from U.S.
cadastral surveys.
In
Denmark and most of
Germany the mile in the
19th century was an approximately 7.5 km geographical mile (determined by 4 minutes of arc) specified by
Ole Rømer. In parts of Germany there also existed an exact 7.5 kilometer metric mile variant, but it mostly went out of use at the beginning of the
20th century. The Ole Rømer mile was for a long time used as a
sea mile in
Scandinavia, but was in the middle of the 20th century replaced by the international
nautical mile (which corresponds to 1 minute of arc). The international nautical mile is still often referred to by traditionalist Scandinavians as a
quarter mile. In Norway and Sweden, a mile in daily speech refers to a traditional unit that is still very commonly used, but now defined as 10 kilometers, see mil.
In
Ireland the
Irish mile of 2240 yards (about 2048.3 meters) was used legally until 1826, and by some reports survived until the conversion to the meter as the unit measurement for distance, in early January 2005.
Others miles are:
; Russian verst: 1066.8 m (exactly 3500 feet = ca. 1168 yards) of 500 sazhen
; Scotch mile: 1814.2 m (1984 yards) of 320 falls
; Austrian
Meile: 7585.9 m (8296 yards) of 240
Ruten (rods) or 400
Klafter (fathoms)
See also
External links
Category:Ancient Rome
Category:Units of length
Category:Imperial units
af:Myl
da:Mil
de:Meile
es:Milla
eo:mejlo
et:Miil
fr:Mille (unité de longueur)
it:Miglio (unità di misura)
ja:マイル
lb:Meil
nl:Mijl
nn:Mile
pl:Mila
pt:Milha
ru:Миля
simple:Mile
sl:milja
fi:Maili
sv:Mil
tr:Mil
Category:Customary units in the United States