Metric mile ????

[basslop]

Coming from a "metric country" I am just curious to why do you call the 1500m the metric mile? For example The german Wikipedia http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandinavische_Meile says specifically that Metric mile = 10 000 m

Other links of interest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_mile
Also the corresponding page in Norwegian: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil Even if you don't understand Norwegian you may enjoy some interesting information there.

[Powell]

I suppose it's called that simply because the distance is similar to 1 mile, and is measured metrically.

[Marlow]

And 5280 feet is called the Imperial 1500!

[gh]

Re: Metric mile ????

Coming from a "metric country" I am just curious to why do you call the 1500m the metric mile? For example The german Wikipedia http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandinavische_Meile says specifically that Metric mile = 10 000 m

Other links of interest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_mile
Also the corresponding page in Norwegian: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil Even if you don't understand Norwegian you may enjoy some interesting information there.

The sources you cite aren't related to athletics. It's a term unique to our sport and used by only a handful of English speakers. If forced to come up with an answer, 99.9999999% of the general populace would admit they had never heard the term and guess it meant, perhaps, a kilometer.

[Marlow]

Re: Metric mile ????

It's a term unique to our sport and used by only a handful of English speakers. If forced to come up with an answer, 99.9999999% of the general populace would admit they had never heard the term and guess it meant, perhaps, a kilometer.

Isn't Larry Rawson the coiner of the phrase?! :twisted:

[skyin' brian]

A guy on my track team in college thought that the 1600 was the metic mile.

[Daisy]

A guy on my track team in college thought that the 1600 was the metic mile.

That makes sense but I assume the term predated the US' HS 1600m.

[gh]

It was in use in T&FN 50-odd years ago.

[dj]

The term first gets used in the New York Times in 1932, July 10.

Arthur Daley, the Times track writer and later the sports editor, was writing a previes of the Olympic Trials: "Going from the 400 and 800 meter distances to the 'metric mile,' the 1,500-meter run, another of the early season sensations is encountered."

First use of the term in the LA Times was in 1934. Those are the only two major dailies I have instant access to.

[kuha]

I always presumed that, as the metric distance closest to the mile, it was the metric distance that milers ran. Not too circular in logic, here....