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The United States and Myanmar are the only countries that have not adopted the Metric System.
However it turns out the UK does use Miles instead of Kilometers.
--quote--
Longer distances in England are traditionally measured in miles. The mile is a Roman unit, originally defined to be the length of 1000 paces of a Roman legion. A "pace" here means two steps, right and left, or about 5 feet, so the mile is a unit of roughly 5000 feet. For a long time no one felt any need to be precise about this, because distances longer than a furlong did not need to be measured exactly. It just didn't make much difference whether the next town was 21 or 22 miles away. In medieval England, various mile units seem to have been used. Eventually, what made the most sense to people was that a mile should equal 8 furlongs, since the furlong was an English unit roughly equivalent to the Roman stadium and the Romans had set their mile equal to 8 stadia. This correspondence is not exact: the furlong is 660 English feet and the stadium is only 625 slightly-shorter Roman feet.
In 1592, Parliament settled this question by setting the length of the mile at 8 furlongs, which works out to 1760 yards or 5280 feet. This decision completed the English distance system. Since this was just before the settling of the American colonies, British and American distance units have always been the same.
--/quote--
Source(s):
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/custom.html
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http://www.travelfurther.net/dictionaries/driving.htm
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| February 14, 2009 03:20 AM |
However it turns out the UK does use Miles instead of Kilometers.
--quote--
Longer distances in England are traditionally measured in miles. The mile is a Roman unit, originally defined to be the length of 1000 paces of a Roman legion. A "pace" here means two steps, right and left, or about 5 feet, so the mile is a unit of roughly 5000 feet. For a long time no one felt any need to be precise about this, because distances longer than a furlong did not need to be measured exactly. It just didn't make much difference whether the next town was 21 or 22 miles away. In medieval England, various mile units seem to have been used. Eventually, what made the most sense to people was that a mile should equal 8 furlongs, since the furlong was an English unit roughly equivalent to the Roman stadium and the Romans had set their mile equal to 8 stadia. This correspondence is not exact: the furlong is 660 English feet and the stadium is only 625 slightly-shorter Roman feet.
In 1592, Parliament settled this question by setting the length of the mile at 8 furlongs, which works out to 1760 yards or 5280 feet. This decision completed the English distance system. Since this was just before the settling of the American colonies, British and American distance units have always been the same.
--/quote--
Source(s):
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/custom.html
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Other Answers (2)
February 14, 2009 03:19 AM
"Contrary to what some people might tell you that haven't been here, the Brits DO measure their speed in Miles Per Hour, not Kilometers. The UK is the ONLY country in Europe to do so. Even though Ireland drives on the wrong side of the road too, they measure in Kilometers, but while in England you'll be at home with MPH." http://www.travelfurther.net/dictionaries/driving.htm
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