Furlong

The system of long furrows arose because turning a team of oxen pulling a heavy plough was difficult.

[4] The furlong was historically viewed as being equivalent to the Roman stade (stadium),[5] which in turn derived from the Greek system.

For example, the King James Bible uses the term "furlong" in place of the Greek stadion, although more recent translations often use miles or kilometres in the main text and give the original numbers in footnotes.

A league was considered to be the distance a man could walk in one hour, and the mile (from mille, meaning "thousand") consisted of 1,000 passus (paces, five feet, or double-step).

Among the important units of distance and length at the time were the foot, yard, rod (or pole), furlong, and the mile.

In the rest of the world the furlong has very limited use, with the notable exception of horse racing in most English-speaking countries, including Canada and the United States.

Also distances along English canals navigated by narrowboats are commonly expressed in miles and furlongs.

This means that every block in a typical Chicago neighborhood (in either north–south or east–west direction but rarely both) is approximately one furlong in length.

The blocks become less regular in shape farther from the center, but the numbering system (800 units to each mile) remains the same everywhere in Salt Lake County.

Blocks in central Logan, Utah, and in large sections of Phoenix, Arizona, are similarly a square furlong in extent (eight to a mile, which explains the series of freeway exits: 19th Ave, 27th, 35th, 43rd, 51st, 59th ...).

The difference of approximately two parts per million between the old U.S. value and the "international" value was insignificant for most practical measurements.