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Why is a nautical mile different from a statute mile?

The statute (land) mile was established by the ancient Romans as a measure of walking distance equal to 1,000 paces. The word "mile" was taken from the Latin term mille passus, meaning "one thousand paces."

Around the year 1500, in England, the mile was considered equal to 8 furlongs. A furlong was 625 feet, thus the mile was equal to 5,000 feet. At that time, the unit of measurement the "foot" was based on the size of a German person's foot. Because English people, on average, had smaller feet than German people, the English "foot" was later defined as a shorter length. In 1593 (during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I), in accordance with the change in the value of a "foot," the number of feet per statute mile was upped by 280. Thus the statute mile became equal to 5,280 feet (1,609 meters).

The nautical mile, used by ships and...

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1. Augustus Caesar