Historical Units

Stade

Définition

Le stade (ou stadion) est une ancienne unité grecque de longueur approximativement égale à 185 mètres (600 pieds grecs), initialement définie comme la longueur d'une piste de course.

Explication

The word 'stadium' derives directly from this unit, as Greek athletic facilities were built to accommodate one stadion of racing distance. Eratosthenes famously used the stadion around 240 BC to estimate Earth's circumference at approximately 250,000 stadia — yielding a result within ~2% of the modern value, depending on which regional stadion he used. The exact length varied between Greek city-states, ranging from 157 m to 211 m.

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