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Re: MPH vs. RPM, Spitfire 1500

To: OC@46thFoot.com
Subject: Re: MPH vs. RPM, Spitfire 1500
From: Donald H Locker <dhl@chelseamsl.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 13:54:36 -0500 (EST)
Two notes:  Roman Legionaires had regular legs -- a pace is two steps
(left foot to left foot) so each step was 0.8 yards long.  The
calibration procedure involved using a lot of soldiers and taking the
average pace as the official pace.  In any measurement, the error is
reduced by a factor of the square root of the number of inidividual
measurements made -- 100 soldiers reduces the error to 10% of the
error of using one soldier.  And Rome had plenty of soldiers to work
into their average.

HTH,
Donald.

> Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 00:33:06 +0000
> From: Michael Hargreave Mawson <OC@46thFoot.com>
[snips]
> The Imperial Mile ought to be pretty close to a kilometre.   The word 
> "mile" comes from the Latin "mille passuum" meaning a thousand paces. 
> According to the OED, however, the Imperial Roman Mile has been 
> calculated at 1618 yards, which must mean that Roman Legionaries had 
> *very* long legs.   I wonder how they were calibrated?

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