What is a Pace?

Date: 02/28/2002 at 23:42:07
From: Tiffany
Subject: Paces and standard unit of measurement

What is the difference between a "pace" and the standard unit of 
measurement?

Date: 03/01/2002 at 12:46:13
From: Doctor Peterson
Subject: Re: Paces and standard unit of measurement

Hi, Tiffany.

A pace is any individual's step length, which depends on who is 
measuring, while any standard unit, such as a foot or a meter, has a 
fixed length that everyone agrees on (by buying rulers of that size), 
so that two people will give the same answer.

On the other hand, according to the dictionary of units at

    http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/   

a pace is

    a traditional unit of distance equal to the length of a person's
    "full" pace, that is, the distance between two successive falls
    of the same foot. Thus one pace equals two steps. The Romans
    counted 1000 paces in a mile with each pace being a little over
    58 inches (or about 148 centimeters). In English speaking
    countries, the pace is usually defined to be exactly 5 feet (or
    152.4 centimeters); this unit is also called the great pace or
    geometrical pace. Obviously, a good metric equivalent for the
    pace is exactly 1.5 meters. 

So although the pace is not originally a standard unit, it CAN be 
treated as a standard unit (5 feet), and then what I said above is not 
true.

- Doctor Peterson, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/