A mile was originally “mille passus”, which was Latin for 1000 paces because that’s what it was, making 1/4 mile 250 paces. Not exactly precise by modern standards, but actually a logical measure for walkable distances.
That’s some pretty long paces? So why not use those instead of yawns? Then at lest there would be 1 point where imperial made sense. Not much, but better than nothing.
A mile was originally “mille passus”, which was Latin for 1000 paces because that’s what it was, making 1/4 mile 250 paces. Not exactly precise by modern standards, but actually a logical measure for walkable distances.
That’s some pretty long paces? So why not use those instead of yawns? Then at lest there would be 1 point where imperial made sense. Not much, but better than nothing.
A pace is two steps. The Roman gradus, or step, was half of that, roughly in the neighborhood of a yard.