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Excerpt from An Elementary Text-Book of Hydrostatics
In the English system, the most usual unit of length is the foot The foot is one-third of a yard, the yard being defined as the distance between two marks on a certain bar of platinum which is now kept in the Tower of London. There is no reason why this particular length should have been chosen as the unit, beyond that of' custom. This fact is expressed by saying that the yard is a purely arbitrary unit.
Smaller lengths may be measured in inches (1 foot 12 inches), longer lengths in miles (1 mile 5280 feet), both units being derived from the foot or yard.
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