Stadion
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Definition
The stadion (or stade) is an ancient Greek unit of length approximately equal to 185 meters (600 Greek feet), originally defined as the length of a footrace track.
Explanation
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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