5 ms·

Can anyone who knows history comment on whether or not it is truly a coincidence that the ratio of 1 mile to 1 kilometer approximates the Golden Ratio? As an a

Can anyone who knows history comment on whether or not it is truly a coincidence that the ratio of 1 mile to 1 kilometer approximates the Golden Ratio? As an aside, Wikipedia doesn't have much on the historical development of the definition of a mile, but it has this amazing tidbit on the meter that I found fascinating: Historically, the metre ... was designed to represent one ten-millionth of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole along Paris Meridian.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre

pkrumins 17y ago
Yes, I'd like to know as well. I was unable to find any references so far. I am truly interested.
lmkg 17y ago
"Mile" also means a thousand, coincidentally. In ancient Rome, it was the distance of one thousand paces. Note that a "pace" was two steps, i.e. one stride with each leg.
cruise02 17y ago
Seems like it's just a coincidence. According to The Straight Dope (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/637/whats-the-origin-of-miles-and-yards http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/637/whats-the-origi...) the length of a mile is based on the length of a Roman pace (or stride).
Timothee 17y ago
I remember that definition from high school. It's funny how useless that definition is, in that, knowing it doesn't help you figure out what it really is. The newer definition: "In 1983, the metre was redefined as the distance travelled by light in free space in 1⁄299,792,458 of a second." always kind of bothered me because it sounds like it went like this: "Ok, so we defined the speed of light as 299,792,458m/s and it's all over textbooks and formulas, but the thing is that our current definition of a meter sounds a little bit like a guess. So let's just reverse the speed of light and we're good!" It feels like a backronym to me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym)
- clowdy 17y ago
  meter was originally designed by French to be measured by clock which was much more precise at the time : a thread pendulum of length one meter has a period of two seconds . thatis why acceleration due to earths gravity is g~pi^2
  - cromulent 17y ago
    I understood they designed it to be 1/10000000 of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator (through Paris). Then they had to calculate how far that was. They spent an awful lot of time and trouble measuring a large arc of the world by physical survey, but one of the guys made a small calculation error so it turned out later that the Earth is not exactly 40000km around. I read a book about it a few years ago, but I can't remember the title. Nautical miles are based on one minute of latitude, so they vary as the Earth is a bit squashed.
Periodic 17y ago
SI units: Seconds came first. Since ancient times (Egypt or Babylon) people divided the day into 24 parts and then sub-divided by 60 and by 60 again. This unit is defined in relation to the rotation of the earth (which was later found to be slowing, so it got redefined). With seconds established, someone realized that a pendulum has the same period regardless of the weight attached. The meter was defined to be the length of a pendulum with a period of two seconds, or a half-period of one second. Unrelated, but grams were defined to be the weight of one cubic centimeter of water at (I believe) freezing/melting temperature. Imperial units: Well, these come from all sorts of places. Miles comes from paces, which are related to the height of a man. Conclusion: SI units are derived from Earth's rotation and gravity, imperial units are derived from functional and human characteristics. Unless you believe that the proportions of the human body are related to other things in the cosmos directly (DaVinci tried to show this) then it's just a coincidence.
- eordano 17y ago
  I had forgotten about these relationships... You are right, one gram is the weight of one cubic centimeter of water at 4ºC (a little away from 0ºC so you don´t solidify by mistake). I heard that imperial units used to change a lot, that the patron was the current king at the throne. Do you know if this is true?
  - Xichekolas 17y ago
    4C is the temperature at which H20 is most dense, so it makes sense use that temp when defining a mass in terms of a volume. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_water#Density_of_water_and_ice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_water#Density_of_...
- tel 17y ago
  There are constantly suggestions that some ratios of proportions of the human body are averaged at around the golden mean.

pkrumins 17y ago

Yes, I'd like to know as well. I was unable to find any references so far. I am truly interested.

lmkg 17y ago

"Mile" also means a thousand, coincidentally. In ancient Rome, it was the distance of one thousand paces. Note that a "pace" was two steps, i.e. one stride with each leg.

cruise02 17y ago

Seems like it's just a coincidence. According to The Straight Dope (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/637/whats-the-origin-of-miles-and-yards http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/637/whats-the-origi...) the length of a mile is based on the length of a Roman pace (or stride).

Timothee 17y ago

I remember that definition from high school. It's funny how useless that definition is, in that, knowing it doesn't help you figure out what it really is. The newer definition: "In 1983, the metre was redefined as the distance travelled by light in free space in 1⁄299,792,458 of a second." always kind of bothered me because it sounds like it went like this: "Ok, so we defined the speed of light as 299,792,458m/s and it's all over textbooks and formulas, but the thing is that our current definition of a meter sounds a little bit like a guess. So let's just reverse the speed of light and we're good!" It feels like a backronym to me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym)

clowdy 17y ago
meter was originally designed by French to be measured by clock which was much more precise at the time : a thread pendulum of length one meter has a period of two seconds . thatis why acceleration due to earths gravity is g~pi^2
- cromulent 17y ago
  I understood they designed it to be 1/10000000 of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator (through Paris). Then they had to calculate how far that was. They spent an awful lot of time and trouble measuring a large arc of the world by physical survey, but one of the guys made a small calculation error so it turned out later that the Earth is not exactly 40000km around. I read a book about it a few years ago, but I can't remember the title. Nautical miles are based on one minute of latitude, so they vary as the Earth is a bit squashed.

Periodic 17y ago

SI units: Seconds came first. Since ancient times (Egypt or Babylon) people divided the day into 24 parts and then sub-divided by 60 and by 60 again. This unit is defined in relation to the rotation of the earth (which was later found to be slowing, so it got redefined). With seconds established, someone realized that a pendulum has the same period regardless of the weight attached. The meter was defined to be the length of a pendulum with a period of two seconds, or a half-period of one second. Unrelated, but grams were defined to be the weight of one cubic centimeter of water at (I believe) freezing/melting temperature. Imperial units: Well, these come from all sorts of places. Miles comes from paces, which are related to the height of a man. Conclusion: SI units are derived from Earth's rotation and gravity, imperial units are derived from functional and human characteristics. Unless you believe that the proportions of the human body are related to other things in the cosmos directly (DaVinci tried to show this) then it's just a coincidence.

eordano 17y ago
I had forgotten about these relationships... You are right, one gram is the weight of one cubic centimeter of water at 4ºC (a little away from 0ºC so you don´t solidify by mistake). I heard that imperial units used to change a lot, that the patron was the current king at the throne. Do you know if this is true?
- Xichekolas 17y ago
  4C is the temperature at which H20 is most dense, so it makes sense use that temp when defining a mass in terms of a volume. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_water#Density_of_water_and_ice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_water#Density_of_...
tel 17y ago
There are constantly suggestions that some ratios of proportions of the human body are averaged at around the golden mean.