How long is a furlong?
A furlong is an ancient British unit of measurement. Most commonly referred to today in joking about a person’s age. A furrow is a trench that’s been made by pulling a plow. The term furlong is how long a horse can pull a plow without stopping. The unit was calculated to be 220 yards; I suppose in ancient Britain all horse could pull a plow the exact same distance.
Another interesting note is that when the Romans introduced the mile it was altered to accommodate 8 even furlongs. This was done because everything was already measured in furlongs, now all they had to do was divide by 8 to get the same distance in miles.
Now you can say your car gets 80 furlongs to the gallon instead of 10 miles to the gallon.
