Pace (unit)

A pace is a unit of length consisting either of one normal walking step (~0.75 m), or of a double step, returning to the same foot (~1.5 m). Like other traditional measurements, paces started as informal units but have since been standardized, often with the specific length set according to a typical brisk or military marching stride.

In the US, it is an uncommon customary unit of length denoting a brisk single step and equal to 2½ feet or 30 inches (76.2 cm).

The term "pace" is also used to translate similar formal units in other systems of measurement. Pacing is also used as an informal measure in surveying, with the "pace" equal to two of the surveyor's steps reckoned through comparison with a standard rod or chain.

Other systems

The Roman pace (Latin: passus) was a Roman unit of length. It was notionally the distance of a full stride from the position of one heel where it raised off of the ground to where it set down again at the end of the step: two steps, one by each foot. Under Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, it was standardized as the distance of two steps (gradūs) or five Roman feet (pedes), about 1.48 meters or 4 feet 10 inches. There were 1000 paces in the Roman mile, which was named after that distance as the mille passus or passuum.