Not directly related to the video... but the PLSS system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System) in the US, how our land is divided, is based on the mile. A majority of the states, less the original colonies and a few others, were originally surveyed and the lands split up in a grid system of sections (1 square mile) & townships (36 sections or 6 square miles)
A "section" is 5,280' by 5,280' having an acreage of 640 acres. Back in the 1700s & 1800s, the surveyors used a "chain" to measure out the land. A chain is 66' long and consisted of 100 "links" (each 0.66 feet). A section is 80 chains (80 * 66 = 5280'), so a quarter section (160 acres) is 40 chains x 40 chains. You can get a quick acreage of a piece of land by converting the length & width to chains, multiplying them and dividing by 10 (of course you could just take the square footage and divide by 43,560 <-- which is 66 * 66 * 10) , this is assuming everything is at right angles of course. If you see really old legal descriptions, a lot of time the length will be in chains.
I am a land surveyor and I find it really interesting how the very simple math they used back then works out so nicely.
Not directly related to the video... but the PLSS system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System) in the US, how our land is divided, is based on the mile. A majority of the states, less the original colonies and a few others, were originally surveyed and the lands split up in a grid system of sections (1 square mile) & townships (36 sections or 6 square miles)
A "section" is 5,280' by 5,280' having an acreage of 640 acres. Back in the 1700s & 1800s, the surveyors used a "chain" to measure out the land. A chain is 66' long and consisted of 100 "links" (each 0.66 feet). A section is 80 chains (80 * 66 = 5280'), so a quarter section (160 acres) is 40 chains x 40 chains. You can get a quick acreage of a piece of land by converting the length & width to chains, multiplying them and dividing by 10 (of course you could just take the square footage and divide by 43,560 <-- which is 66 * 66 * 10) , this is assuming everything is at right angles of course. If you see really old legal descriptions, a lot of time the length will be in chains.
I am a land surveyor and I find it really interesting how the very simple math they used back then works out so nicely.
This is really interesting, learned something new! Thanks!