Earth's circumference mile in the seventeenth century and the metre in the eighteenth. Earth's polar circumference is almost exactly 40,000 km because the metre was originally calibrated on this measurement (1/10-millionth of the distance between the poles and the equator), which is almost exactly 21,600 nautical miles (being defined as one minute of a degree – i.e. 360 multiplied by 60). It has been described as "the single most important measurement" of the Earth, assuming the Earth to be a sphere (the Earth is an technically an ellipsoid, albeit with just 0.3% flattening). Earth's circumference lines are the foundation of the coordinate
Minot (unit) which is also called a "mine" in French. As the French bushel was defined as 10/27 of a cubic French royal foot, or 640 cubic French royal inches, the "minot" was 1920 cubic French royal inches, corresponding to about 38.086 litres. In Toulouse the minot was used for charcoal and salt measurement. Later on, there was also a minot de Paris based on exactly one cubic French royal foot, which is equivalent to 34.277 litres. The ancient Roman amphora shared a similar definition (one cubic Roman foot). It was itself divided into three units, similar to the "minot". Minot (unit)