Editing Mile (section)

===Dutch===
[[File:Mercator scale.png|thumb|left|upright=1.3|alt=Scalebar on a Mercator map|Scalebar on a 16th-century map made by [[Gerardus Mercator|Mercator]]. The scalebar is expressed in "Hours walking or common Flemish miles", and includes three actual scales: small, medium and big Flemish miles.]]

The '''Dutch mile''' ({{lang|nl|mijl}}) has had different definitions throughout history. One of the older definitions was 5,600 [[ell]]s. But the length of an ell was not standardised, so that the length of a mile could range between 3,280&nbsp;m and 4,280&nbsp;m. In the sixteenth century, the Dutch had three different miles: small ({{lang|nl|kleine}}), medium ({{lang|nl|middelbaar/gemeen}}), and large ({{lang|nl|groote}}). The Dutch {{lang|nl|kleine}} mile had the historical definition of one hour's walking ({{lang|nl|uur gaans}}), which was defined as 24 stadia, 3000 paces, or 15,000 Amsterdam or Rhineland feet (respectively 4,250&nbsp;m or 4,710&nbsp;m). The common Dutch mile was 32 stadia, 4,000 paces, or 20,000 feet (5,660 m or 6,280 m). The large mile was defined as 5000 paces.<ref name="Apian Cosmographie">{{cite book |last1=Apian |first1=Petrus |title=Cosmographie, oft Beschryvinghe der geheelder werelt |date=1545 |publisher=de Bonte |page=xvii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NDNhAAAAcAAJ |access-date=18 November 2023}}</ref> The common Dutch mile was preferred by mariners, equating with 15 to one degree of [[latitude]] or one degree of [[longitude]] on the [[equator]]. This was originally based upon [[Ptolemy]]'s underestimate of the Earth's circumference. The ratio of 15 Dutch miles to a degree remained fixed while the length of the mile was changed as with improved calculations of the circumference of the Earth. In 1617, [[Willebrord Snellius]] calculated a degree of the circumference of the Earth at 28,500 {{lang|nl|Rijnlantsche Roeden}} (within 3.5% of the actual value), which resulted in a Dutch mile of 1900 rods.<ref name="Metius">{{cite book |last1=Metius |first1=Adriaan Adriaansz |title=Fundamentale onderwijsinghe, aengaende de fabrica en het veelvoudigh gebruyck van het Astrolabium, soo catholicum als particulier |date=1627 |publisher=gedr. bij U. Balck |location=Netherlands |page=163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O1Wb9345orwC |access-date=18 November 2023}}</ref> By the mid-seventeenth century, map scales assigned 2000 rods to the common Dutch mile, which equalled around 7,535&nbsp;m (reducing the discrepancy with latitude measurement to less than 2%). The metric system was introduced in the Netherlands in 1816, and the metric mile became a synonym for the kilometre, being exactly 1,000&nbsp;m. Since 1870, the term {{lang|nl|mijl}} was replaced by the equivalent {{lang|nl|kilometer}}. Today, the word {{lang|nl|mijl}} is no longer used, except as part of certain proverbs and [[Compound (linguistics)|compound]] terms like {{lang|nl|mijlenver}} ("miles away").