League (unit)  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to:
navigation, search  A league is a unit of length (or, rarely,
area). It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is
no longer an official unit in any nation. The word originally
meant the distance a person could walk in an hour.[1] Since the
Middle Ages, many values have been specified in several
countries.  In nautical usage, a league of 3 nautical miles (5.5
km) is roughly how far an observer of average height (around 6
ft. or 1.8 m) can see when standing at sea level.[2] Thus, a
ship travelling one "league" has reached what was previously the
farthest visible distance on the horizon. The lack of an
historical and global standard for the exact measure of a
"league" can be accounted for by the variable elevation of the
observer. For example, a crow's nest mounted atop a 50 ft. (15.2
m) mast extends the visible range to 9.35 miles (15.1 km).[3]
Different definitions[edit]  English-speaking world[edit]  On
land, the league was most commo