[ikawe]

The current "mile", the "International Mile", is very close to the 1593 "statute mile", going through a lot of history, but ultimately coming from 1,000 (a "mil") paces.

The kilometer: As part of the widespread rationalization that occurred during the French revolution, the meter was defined in 1791 as 1 ten millionth the distance of a line drawn from the equator to the north pole, through Paris.

Golden ratio: 1.618... km / mile ratio: 1.609...

So, seems like just a coincidence.

But these are fun:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilometre

[ahazred8ta]

The distance from pole to equator is 90*60 = 5400 nautical miles, and the same distance is 10,000 km. So for a long time the km was exactly 0.54 nautical miles.

[akira2501]

> as 1 ten millionth the distance of a line drawn from the equator to the north pole, through Paris.

Rationalized but nearly unrealizable.