mile

mile

1. a unit of length used in the U.K., the US, and certain other countries, equal to 1760 yards. 1 mile is equivalent to 1.609 34 kilometres

2. See nautical mile

3. See Swedish mile

4. any of various units of length used at different times and places, esp the Roman mile, equivalent to 1620 yards

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

mile

[mīl]

(mechanics)

A unit of length in common use in the United States, equal to 5280 feet, or 1609.344 meters. Abbreviated mi. Also known as land mile; statute mile.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Mile

 

a measure of length used in the national nonmetric systems of units; now used mainly in navigation.

The USSR and most other countries use the nautical mile, which, according to the International Hydrographic Conference of 1929, is equal to 1.852 km, or the average length of 1’ of the arc of a meridian. One nautical mile is equal to 10 cable lengths.

In Great Britain 1 nautical mile equals 1.853184 km, and 1 statute land mile equals 1.609344 km (it is also used in the USA). A geographic mile (German) is equal to 1/15° of the equator, or 7.4204 km. The old Russian mile was equal to 7.46760 km; the old Roman mile, to 1.481 km.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.