miles and miles...

[magicdice]

why are nautical miles and geographical miles different lengths?

[Loosehead]

A nautical mile is 1 minute of arc on a great circle of the Earth. A statute mile is 1760 yards. a nautical mile is approx 1.1 miles. The nautical mile is simply derived as a unit directly related to the circumference of the Earth.

[kempie]

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, each such double stride being called a passus having a length of approximately 2.4 feet. The word mile itself has been derived from the words mille passus (plural milia passuum), a thousand paces.

The name statute mile goes back to Queen Elizabeth I  who redefined the mile from 5000 feet to 8 furlongs (5280 feet) by statute in 1593.

[magicdice]

thank you both, that question had been bugging me for days.