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Old 14-December-2006, 06:50 AM
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mugaliens mugaliens is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ggremlin View Post
A nanosecond is 17 inches long.
I thought it was 11.80285267392 inches long...

Miles:

The original definition of a mile came from the Romans. It was 1,000 steps, at 29 inches per step. The Roman definition for a foot was 1/5 of a step. The original term in Latin was mille passuum.

The nautical mile is defined as being one arc-minute of latitude. Thus, there are 60 nautical miles per degree of latitude, and the distance between the equator and the North or South pole is 5,400 nautical miles. Since the Earth's surface varies in shape, the official definition of it being 6,080.2 feet varies in actual practice. However, it's close enough not to affect navigation by more than a couple feet.
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Last edited by mugaliens : 14-December-2006 at 06:59 AM. Reason: added facts about miles
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