Subject: How did statute miles come to be an absurd length of 5820 feet?

Any given location on earth may be designated precisely by degrees of latitude and longitude. A nautical mile is the distance subtended by one minute of angle on the earths surface. Sailors and aviators use nautical miles because they coincide with the lat/long definition of locations on the surface. How in the world did a statute mile become defined as 5280 feet, and why do we measure everything (including astromomical distances) in statute miles.

Re: How did statute miles come to be an absurd length of 5820 feet?