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Dewi2020 OP t1_iy1tlio wrote

Reply to comment by yacht_boy in Eli5: Why did ships and navies come up with their own system of units (nautical miles, knots, fathoms, etc)? Is it still used? by Dewi2020

IIRC, most of the "Imperial" units (I'm from a metric country lol) were based on ancient Roman units. Back then, a mile was the distance traveled by a soldier in one hour. Man those guys were fit.

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yacht_boy t1_iy1tuvx wrote

I walk 2.5 miles per hour and I'm not a Roman imperial soldier.

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Persist_and_Resist t1_iy1wbk7 wrote

Yeah, but you are not carrying the kit of a soldier, which includes full armour, weapons, and provisions. Nor maintaining that speed for an average of ten hours a day and often more. Nor doing this all in conjunction with other men, and while remaining alert and ready for combat.

Strategic movement speeds are much slower than what you think because you have to factor in everything.

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yacht_boy t1_iy23kkz wrote

No, but I did take years of Latin where we studied this stuff, and I also know my way around hiking.

But then again, google can tell me that the Roman imperial soldiers were 3x as fast as you give them credit for.

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PuzzleheadedBit1939 t1_iy37r9s wrote

The paragraph after the one you highlighted says that the 3mile/hour number is generous and based off some battle where exceptional marching speed could have been expected.

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BlowjobPete t1_iy1wcj6 wrote

Yeah but you're doing that unencumbered, with modern shoes and on paved roads.

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Persist_and_Resist t1_iy1wsj3 wrote

In all fairness, this does assume decent footwear and a Roman paved road, with worse conditions being expected to slow units down.

But a lot of encumbrance plus having to do it for a long time makes it a lot more impressive. At the time, it was quite the feat mostly because the Romans had the infrastructure make it happen.

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yacht_boy t1_iy238al wrote

When I go hiking I am encumbered and definitely not on paved roads. Guilty of modern shoes. Still way over 1 mph on all but the steepest trails.

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