the.com/kilometer
a thousand meters, born when France decided the planet should agree on something.
means A unit of length equal to one thousand meters, roughly the distance you can walk in about twelve minutes.
from A French invention, kilomètre, stitched together from Greek khilioi, 'thousand,' and metron, 'measure' — the latter giving us 'meter' itself. It was forged during the metric reforms that followed the French Revolution, when the new republic set out to rationalize weights and measures for everyone. The metric prefix 'kilo-' has marched on ever since to multiply kilograms, kilowatts, and more by a thousand.
- origin
- defined from one ten-millionth of pole-to-equator distance
- holdouts
- US, Liberia, Myanmar still resist it
- speed
- light covers one in 3.3 microseconds
- running
- the 5K is humanity's favorite suffering
marathon distance — 42.195 kilometers, olympic standard since 1908
tour de france stage — stages range 150-220 kilometers, annual cycling race since 1903
berlin wall length — 155 kilometers surrounding west berlin, stood 1961-1989