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
Obsolete Austrian units of measurement Obsolete Austrian units of measurement Austrian units of measurement were used in Austria until the adoption of the metric system. In 1756, the ruling Arch duchess of Austria, Maria Theresa, ordered that the Viennese "klafter" as well as its multiples and fractions, should be the state-defined measure of length in the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Viennese cubit, that is 1 of the Roman cubit (cubit's or elbow), was also used as a measure of length. The law should also have applied to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, of which Maria Theresa was queen. However,