4 ms·

What about the mile, is that lining-up unsurprising too?

• vinceguidry 9y ago
  A mile, historically, was defined as 1000 paces for reasons that were probably intrinsically tied to human endurance. So yeah.
  • hinkley 9y ago
    You know I think you may be onto something here. The human heart gets into trouble above 200-220 bpm. So a four minute mile is 1000 ‘paces’ in 800-880 beats. And for 4 minutes perhaps (for a marathon, definitely) you have to stay below your aerobic threshold which is probably below 160 bpm if you are good. That’s probably closer to 1.5 or two strides per heartbeat. To run so fast a cheetah pumps its lungs in time with its gait. If the human leg has to, at the limits of endurance, synchronize with the diastolic pressure of circulatory system, I don’t think we would be too surprised. In fact runners and cyclists already know that cadence matters and most amateurs start with a very low one.
  • nicky0 9y ago
    And what is magical about 1000? Some very wooly thinking here.