Karsten writes:
One mile = 1,000 feet ...well, paces. Roman. It was a thousand paces, or "mille" paces -- as metric a unit as you could want.
Uh, if it isn't based on the meter, how can it be "metric"?

decimal != metric


Incidentally, do you know the derivation of the meter?
Bah! Too elementary.

BTW, did you know that the distance from the equator to (either of) the poles is somewhere just over ten thousand kilometers -- or is that, just under?

Hey, they did the best they could, with the technology of the time.