How many kilometers is 1 mile. One mile is how many kilometers

The mile as a unit for measuring long distances did not first appear in England or the USA (where it eventually took root). The word was invented by the ancient Romans, and it means only "thousand". That was how much a legionnaire in full combat dress had to go through in order to feel tired and have some rest.

History of the mile

At first, it was customary to indicate by miles all the long distances: both on land and at sea. But then, with the advent of the meter, it became not very convenient to use a mile as a unit of length: after all, not every day it is necessary to travel such distances on dry land, and in other cases, for example, to measure the length of objects, using a mile is even less appropriate.

But the sailors of all countries and continents fell in love with the mile. If it is not surprising for the great maritime power - England - what would you say about the Portuguese navigator Magellan or the Turkish marshal Piri Reis? Nevertheless, the mile fell in love with them. Miles began to designate all distances on sea charts, to use when counting distances, using sextants. Later, derivatives of the nautical mile appeared. For example, the knot, the unit of speed for a ship, is one mile per hour. Interestingly, in English-speaking countries, measuring speed in miles per hour was practiced at the end of the 20th century, and in the United States and conservative Great Britain, some car brands still supply speed measuring devices where miles appear.

How many miles were there?

Lot. In an era of not very intense connections between different regions, there were German, French, Norwegian and even Scottish miles. The longest was the French (otherwise - league), and on land it corresponded to 4444.4 m, and at sea - 5555.5 m. However, the longest mile comes from Norway: it was almost 11300 m.

In modern practice, the mile has firmly established itself in maritime affairs: there it is equal to 1852 m. Such a multiple number was chosen by navigators for a reason: this is exactly the length of the arc of 1/60 ° of the earth's meridian. Since sailors are not spoiled by land landmarks, it is easier to measure distances on the high seas precisely by astronomical parameters.

Some multinational automakers that sell their products both in Europe and overseas supply the speedometer scale with both "mile" and "metric" parts. Not very convenient, but original.

But in Russia, the mile did not take root. If it was used, it was only as an addition to the traditional verst. It turned out quite clumsily - one Russian mile corresponded to 7467 meters. Try to remember here...

Very often in English and American literature you can find not entirely clear metric units such as miles, feet, yards, inches - especially if the translator is too lazy to convert them into meters and kilograms that are convenient for our perception.

A mile (from Latin milia passuum - a thousand double Roman steps) is a travel measure for measuring distance.

1 mile = 1.609344 kilometers

The mile was used in a number of countries in antiquity, as well as in many modern countries before the introduction of the metric system of measures. In countries with a non-metric system of measures, the mile is still used today. The size of a mile is different in different countries and ranges from 0.58 km (Egypt) to 11.2 km (Old Bohemian mile).

• Ancient Roman (milliatrius): 1 mile = 1.598 km (according to other sources 1.480 km)
• Starorusskaya: 1 mile = 7 versts = 7.4676 km
• British and American: 1 mile = 8 furlongs = 1.6093 km
• Geographic (German): 1 mile = 1/15° equator = 7.420 km

Nautical mile- a unit of distance used in navigation and aviation.

The nautical mile was originally defined as the length of a great circle on the surface of the globe, measuring one minute of arc. Thus, a movement of one nautical mile along the meridian roughly corresponds to a change in geographic coordinates for one minute of latitude.

By modern definition, an international nautical mile is equal to 1852 meters (exactly).

International nautical mile = 10 cable

UK nautical mile = 1853.184 meters (until 1970).

The French had at least two miles - land and sea, and their dimensions were displayed as part of the length of the arc of the earth's meridian. How many kilometers in a land mile, calculated from 1/25 ° of the earth meridian, and this is 4444.4 meters, that is, almost 4.5 kilometers, similarly, a nautical mile, 1/20 ° of the earth meridian, and this is 5.555 km.

Milliatrius, she is the ancient Roman mile, equals 1.482 km. The old Russian mile was equal to seven versts, and now it is almost 7.5 kilometers, about the same value - 7420 meters is the German one mile. How many kilometers the Swedes and Norwegians equate to one mile is 10.668 km and 11.298 km respectively. True, after the adoption of the law on metric measures, both countries equated a mile to exactly ten kilometers.

How many kilometers in a mile are there now

Now there is a concept of two miles - nautical and land.

The nautical mile is equal to 1862 meters, the American land mile is equal to 1.609344 kilometers.

To calculate how many kilometers are in a mile, for an approximate value, simply multiply the number in miles by 1.6. That is, approximately 1609 meters are obtained. A nautical mile is also larger than a land mile and includes approximately 1,852 kilometers or 1,852 meters.

So, a car speed of 40 miles per hour would be approximately equal to the metric 65 kilometers per hour.

1 mile is equal to:

• 1.609344 km;
• 1609.344 m;
• 16093.44 dm;
• 1609344000 µm;
• 63360 inch;
• 1609344 mm;
• 160934.4 cm;
• 5280 ft;
• 1760 yards;

Mile

This measure of length came to us from antiquity and has many varieties and, as a result, values ​​- from 580 meters in an Egyptian mile to more than 11 kilometers in a Norwegian one. However, in the vast majority of cases, a mile is understood as a British (or American) mile - 1609 meters 34 centimeters. So if in a text or a movie you come across a mention of the length in miles, and you need to roughly estimate how much it will be in kilometers, feel free to multiply by 1.5. However, it is also necessary to distinguish the nautical mile, which is used in navigation and aviation - it is slightly longer and is 1852 meters.

Inch

According to legend, the length of the upper phalanx of the thumb was taken as the basis of the inch. Of course, finger to finger is different, and therefore the generally accepted value is 2.54 centimeters. So if now your child asks how tall Thumbelina was in Andersen's fairy tale, you can answer with accuracy.

Foot

Since a foot is 12 inches, it is quite easy to calculate the value: 30.48 centimeters. Thus, if you come across a value in feet, and you are more accustomed to being aware of it in meters, then simply divide it by three. So, the old sea wish “fair wind and seven feet under the keel” meant that 2 meters 10 centimeters should be enough so that the ship does not hit the ground.

Yard

That's three feet, or 91.44 centimeters. Since the yard is only slightly short of the meter, then if you do not need high accuracy, you can not even translate this metric unit. And the name of the famous comedy with Bruce Willis "The Nine Yards" no longer seems like an incomprehensible set of letters. (However, in fairness, we note that the name is a phraseological unit and is translated as "everything to the end, without a trace").

Acre

A word that is often used in crossword puzzles and is the answer to the question "English measure of area." Indeed, by an acre, the ancient English meant a piece of land that a pair of bulls cultivates in a day. An acre is exactly 4046.86 square meters, or approximately 1/250 of a square kilometer. You will not envy that pair of bulls, which will have to process a square kilometer of land - after all, they will have to work for eight whole months!

Lb

Not to be confused with foot! If a foot means distance, then a pound means the mass of an object. By the way, the pound sterling was originally a pound of silver coins, 453.6 grams, that is, almost half a kilo. Very often, modern exercise machines such as a bicycle or a treadmill offer to enter body weight before starting a session. Be careful, because if the simulator is made in England or the USA, then most likely it asks you to specify the weight in pounds. But this is not a problem - just double your weight in kilograms and report it to the simulator. (But when starting to cook according to old Russian cookbooks, keep in mind that the Russian pound is smaller, only 410 grams.)

Ounce

This is 1/16 of a pound, which is 28.35 grams. It is used in medicine for weighing preparations, as well as in perfumery. Look at the packaging of your perfume - you will probably find a designation like 3.3 fl. oz. - this is the designation of the mass (or, more precisely, volume) of perfume in ounces.

For most cases, the listed units will be enough, so now you do not have to puzzle over the English notation for length or mass. Simple rules will not only keep your peace of mind when reading an interesting book that has not been processed by a lazy translator, but will also make you more erudite. After all, if a penalty kick in football breaks through from a distance of 12 yards, then it’s not so difficult to convert this value into meters, right?

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In foreign literature and cinema, you can often find the designation of the distance indicated in miles. Everyone has heard about this unit of distance measurement, but how much is one mile? How to convert it to ordinary kilometers?

What are miles?

Do you know why kilometers are good, and why, in fact, they have become the main unit of distance measurement? Yes, the decimal system played a role here, but there is another reason - the kilometer is the standard, while the mile can be different. The most common mile is 1609 meters, but if we are talking about sea distances, then most likely we mean a nautical mile, which is already equal to 1852 meters. In addition to these two miles, almost every country had its own understanding of the mile, in some countries, for example, in Russia, there were even several different versions of the mile. Even the original definition of a mile gave no reason to say what a mile was, because in the original a mile is a thousand double steps, and each walker has a different leg length, not to mention the fact that the roads are different in quality.

Thus, it is most likely that each mile is a little more than 1.5 kilometers, but not more than 2 kilometers, although in practice it all depends on the country - a mile can be less than one kilometer, and more than eight ..

The British metric system causes a lot of inconvenience to those who are used to simple and understandable kilograms, meters and liters. How a mile is determined in km and why the old measure turned out to be so tenacious is described in this article.

historical measures

From the distant past came to us inches and miles, pounds and yards, bushels and pints. All these units of measurement were directly related to man. Without a standard system of weights and measures at hand, people used what was nearby. And what could be closer than your own hands and feet? This is how the first anthropometric measures related to the size of human body parts appeared. For example, an inch was the length of the phalanx of the index finger. A foot is the size of a grown man's foot, and so on. But what is 1 mile? How many kilometers is it?

What are miles

This well-known measure of length came to us from ancient times. Due to its antiquity, it has many interpretations. When answering the question “1 mile - how many kilometers?”, It is imperative to clarify which unit of measurement the interlocutor has in mind. The Egyptian mile is 580 meters, while the longest, the Norwegian mile, is almost 11 kilometers.

Until the middle of the 18th century, in Europe alone, there were about 46 different miles, which measured completely different distances.

Why is that?

Such a discrepancy in this standard measure of length is easily explained. The word "mile" has Latin roots. This standard measure of length was measured by one thousand steps of ancient Roman legionnaires.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, a simple and convenient value began to be used throughout Europe. Yes, they just considered it differently. Many nations coordinated the mile with their national measures of length. For example, the Russian mile was equal to seven versts, the French equated it to their Gallic leagues, and the British measured a mile in furlongs. Proud Scots also used this measure of length, but it varied considerably in size in different regions of the Highlands and was somewhat longer than the English one.

Snap to geography

Later, with the advent of precise measuring instruments, they tried to standardize the wayward mile. Over the centuries, the study of the surrounding world has given scientists accurate knowledge about the structure of our planet. It turned out to be very convenient to draw the surface of the Earth with parallels and meridians and link the existing units of length to geographical measurements. One of the first in this series was 1 mile. How many kilometers did it cover in geographic units? Everything depended on the name.

Such a different mile

The practical Germans were the first to love this correspondence. From now on, the German mile (aka geographical) was equal to 1/15 degree of the equatorial parallel, which amounted to 7.420 km.

The French divided the land and nautical miles, but equated both values ​​to a fraction of the earth's meridian. One land league occupies the 25th part of one meridian degree. In the standard system of measures and weights, one French mile is 4.44 km. A nautical mile is slightly longer. The French equated it to 1/20 of a meridian degree. Accordingly, its length will be longer - the French nautical mile is 5.55 km.

The Swedes were the easiest. Before the spread of the metric system, they used their own mile, which was equal to 10.6 km. After the approval of the international SI system, the Swedes only slightly shortened their mile and recognized it as equal to 10.0 km.

British (American) mile

By far the most common is the British mile, often referred to as the American mile. The default for international business documents is UK 1 mile. How many kilometers of airways are converted into miles for British and American passengers, only employees of international airlines know.

After all, according to tradition, the duration of air flights and bonuses for passengers are calculated in US miles. One such unit of length is 1.609 km and is a multiple of eight furlongs, 1760 yards and 5280 feet.

A mile is a unit of measure for distance dating back to ancient Rome. Translated from Latin, it means 1,000 steps. The military - the Romans, walking along the roads of the empire, measured the distance with double steps. Initially, the Roman mile corresponded to 1475 meters. This measure was used in many countries in antiquity. However, with the introduction of the metric system of measures, known as the SI, its use has been greatly reduced. One way or another, today in some countries this travel measure of length is still used. It should be noted that the length of a mile varies greatly in different parts of the world from 0.58 km to 11.3 km. Moreover, back in the 18th century in Europe, there were about 46 units of measurement, which were called miles.

To date, several types of miles are found in everyday life in different areas. Speaking about the most popular of them, we can name:

• Land miles
• Nautical miles

Let's consider each of them in more detail.

Nautical miles

A nautical mile is a unit of measure for the distance traveled by a ship between destinations. This measure is widely used in navigation as well as in aviation. In fact, this is the average length of the arc of one arc minute of the meridian. Gerard Mercator, a Flemish cartographer and geographer, suggested using this measure. In Russia, the nautical mile has been used since the time of Peter the Great. And today, when seafarers are offered to move to kilometers, they answer that they do not plan to do this. However, it is justified. After all, a nautical mile is, in fact, a path corresponding to the distance between two geographical coordinates in one minute of latitude.

How many kilometers are in a mile? Here are the formulas for converting miles to kilometers and vice versa.

Nautical mile to kilometers conversion formula

1 nautical mile = 1,852 meters = 1.852 kilometers

Derive the formula for converting a kilometer to a nautical mile

1 nautical mile = 1.852 kilometers
1,000 nautical miles = 1,852 kilometers
1 kilometer = 1000/1852 miles (approximately equal to) 0.54 miles

Formula to convert kilometers to nautical miles

1 kilometer = 1000 / 1852 miles? 0.54 miles

Land miles

The land mile is used primarily in English-speaking countries, and corresponds to a value equal to 1,609 meters. The statute mile is used in the United States and is sometimes referred to as the American mile for this reason. Accordingly, if you want to know: how many kilometers are in a US mile or, which is the same, how many km are in a US mile, then the above value should be used. Also, this unit can be found under the names British or statute mile.

Formula to convert statute miles to kilometers

1 statute mile = 1,609 meters = 1.609 kilometers

Kilometer to statute mile conversion formula

1 km = 1000/1609 statute miles = 0.6215 statute miles

In addition to those described, there are also:

• geographical or German mile equal to 7,420 meters (7.42 km);
• an old Russian mile equal to 7,467.6 meters (7.4676 km).

1 mile is how many kilometers in Russia?

I would also like to note that in Russia this measure of length is not used, because there is nothing to measure in these units of measurement in the Russian Federation. Sailors have worldwide nautical miles (see above).

Often there is a need, for example, when solving a problem to find out: how many miles are in a kilometer or vice versa? Here it is worth clarifying which mile (land or sea) you need to transfer. Or maybe an old Russian mile or a German one? And already depending on this, you can translate this value into the usual kilometers. Let's consider several problems of converting miles to kilometers and vice versa. For definiteness, we clarify that to solve problems we will convert nautical miles into kilometers (1 nautical mile \u003d 1.852 kilometers).

Convert miles to km

Challenge #1: 1 mile - how many km? Solution: Using the above formula, we get: 1 * 1.852 = 1.852 km. Answer: There are 1.852 kilometers in one mile.	Problem #5: How many kilometers are there in 10 miles? Solution: 10 * 1.852 = 18.52 kilometers. Answer: There are 18.52 kilometers in 10 miles.
Challenge #2: 2 miles - how many km? Solution: Using the formula above, we get: 2 * 1.852 = 3.704 kilometers. Answer: There are 3.704 kilometers in 2 miles.	Problem #6: How many miles is 5 miles? Solution: 5 * 1.852 = 9.26 meters. Answer: There are 9.26 kilometers in 5 km.
Problem #3: A thousand miles - how many kilometers? Solution: 3 * 1.852 = 5.556 kilometers. Answer: There are 5.556 kilometers in 3 miles.	Problem #8: How many kilometers will be in 200 miles? Solution: 200 * 1.852 = 370.4 kilometers. Answer: There are 304.4 kilometers in 200 miles.
Problem #4: 6 miles - how many km? Solution: 6 * 1.852 = 11.112 kilometers. Answer: There are 11.112 kilometers in 6 miles.	Problem #9: Convert 36 miles to km. Solution: 36 * 1.852 = 66.672 kilometers. Answer: 36 miles is 66.672 kilometers.

How many miles are in N kilometers?

Consider inverse problems of finding the number of kilometers in a mile? And we will convert kilometers to statute miles (1 km = 0.6215 miles).

Miles to kilometers convert online

We offer you to use our calculator for converting miles to kilometers online.