Where did the 1/4 mile originate from?

[gregshin]

Lets see if anyone of you can answer me this....and please NO GOOGLE!!!

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I'm pretty sure that it's either the length of a block or the standard laps at a horse track. (I think both, but the drag race from the former)

 

[kevinthenerd]

....and please NO GOOGLE!!!

How is that enforceable?

 

[notfred]

It was the length between stoplights.

 

[conjur]

Because way back when cars would blow up after a 1/2 mile? 😀

 

[chin311]

TEH FAST AND TEH FURIOUS!!1

because they live it 1/4 mile at a time. 😛

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I'm pretty sure that it's either the length of a block or the standard laps at a horse track. (I think both, but the drag race from the former)

Standard laps at a horse track? No way! More like a mile is the standard lap. 1/4 mile is only 2 furlongs.

heh...reminds me of a joke my grandfather used to tell:


What's the longest thing in the world?

:


:


:


:


:


:


A cat's tail. It's 'fur' to the end!


yuk yuk yuk!

 

[gregshin]

During the 1600's the colonials used horse racing as a form of entertainment...they used the 1/4 mile to judge a race...and from there it moved to cars

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I'm pretty sure that it's either the length of a block or the standard laps at a horse track. (I think both, but the drag race from the former)

Standard laps at a horse track? No way! More like a mile is the standard lap. 1/4 mile is only 2 furlongs.

heh...reminds me of a joke my grandfather used to tell:


What's the longest thing in the world?

:


:


:


:


:


:


A cat's tail. It's 'fur' to the end!


yuk yuk yuk!

*throws acid in conjurs face*

 

[conjur]

heh...I bet you laughed!

😀

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: conjur
heh...I bet you laughed!

😀

I just had myself a huge piece of corn on the cob. I got it from that joke.

It's ok, though. I tell corny crap all the time when I'm buzzed out on caffeine (like right now). When I read it afterwards, I wonder what I was thinking. (I'm sure my corn reference won't look as good in the morning.) I hope caffeine has no long-term side effects.

To tell you the truth, I don't know when my father is ever not like that, and he never uses/abuses caffeine like I do. Go figure...

 

[KenGr]

Assuming this is about drag racing, there is no specific reason. As noted above, horse tracks are a minimum of 1/2 mile. A "standard" city block is 1/8 mile although a lot of cities are not standard. In the US, we always measured distances in fractions of a mile. Drag races are a combination of launch, acceleration and top speed. A half mile would be a top speed contest and, although there are 1/8 mile drags, cars aren't really competitive with street gearing.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

1/8th mile drags are often done to keep costs down and focus more on driver skill than the car. The reasoning is that top end components tend to be expensive, and the shorter distance still has the same amount of time spent launching the car as a longer distance.