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The origin of the terrestrial mile – a measurement system still in use in England and the United States – is the mille passus, a unit of length used by the Roman army that corresponded to 1,000 steps taken by a centurion, the commander of his militias. The centurion’s strides taken as a basis were twice as wide as usual, and the measure found was the equivalent of 63,360 inches, or 1,609.34 meters. “The nautical, or maritime, mile was scientifically established. As the Earth has a round shape, any line around it will be 360 degrees. The equator is approximately 40,000 kilometers long. This perimeter was then divided by 360 and then by 60, as one degree corresponds to 60 minutes. The resulting value is the nautical mile, or 1853.25 meters. By international convention, this value was rounded to 1,852 meters”, says physicist Giorgio Mascate, from the National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality (Inmetro), in Brasília.