A terrestrial mile was an unit of length equal to 5,280 feet, 1,760 yards or 1.6093 kilometers. This unit was most commonly used on Earth primarily from the 19th thru the 21st centuries, and was still occasionally used by the United Federation of Planets during the 23rd century.
Sensors aboard starships and tricorders could be calibrated to read in miles. The term was also use in casual references to distance. (Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series) When used by Spock while speaking in familiar terms to Abraham Lincoln in 2269, he qualified the measurements he spoke of, which included miles, to be "using your old-style measurements." (TOS: "The Savage Curtain")
Adam's song "Hey, Out There!" referenced "a mile wide emptiness between you and me". (TOS: "The Way to Eden")
According to Devinoni Ral, "the last mile of a marathon is always the toughest". William T. Riker later toasted with Ral to "the last mile," during their bargaining for the Barzan wormhole in 2366. (TNG: "The Price")
Comparative list of lengths
- The First Federation flagship Fesarius measured almost a mile in diameter. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver")
- Earth Outpost 4 was located a mile deep on an asteroid of almost solid iron, positioned along the Romulan Neutral Zone. (TOS: "Balance of Terror")
- The only access to water on the Ocampan homeworld was two miles below the surface. (VOY: "Caretaker")
- The planet killer was described by Commodore Matt Decker as being "miles long, with a maw that could swallow a dozen starships." (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine")
- Trip Tucker claimed, that the horses of his group had perished several miles north of a Human settlement on a Delphic Expanse planet. (ENT: "North Star")
- Ben Childress' quarters were located about eleven miles, bearing 1-2-1 from the mining company where he worked on. (TOS: "Mudd's Women")
- Christopher Pike's hometown of Mojave was described as a "nice little town with fifty miles of parkland around it." (TOS: "The Cage", "The Menagerie, Part II")
- The Humans who inhabited a class L planet in the Delta Quadrant noted that they had three beautiful cities located only 50 miles from the caves that the 37's were. (VOY: "The 37's")
- The ultraviolet satellites placed in permanent orbit above Deneva, were positioned at an altitude of 72 miles. (TOS: "Operation -- Annihilate!")
- While traveling down the interstate from Portage Creek, Indiana, Shannon O'Donnel noted that she had 95 miles to decide whether she would head east towards Ohio or south towards Florida. (VOY: "11:59")
- When scanning for the Horta on Janus VI, Spock set his tricorder to run a spherical check for lifeforms at a radius of one {[dis|hundred|number}} miles. (TOS: "The Devil in the Dark")
- While in orbit above the planet Excalbia, Kirk explained to Abraham Lincoln that the USS Enterprise was positioned 643 miles, 2,021 feet, and 2.04 inches above the surface. (TOS: "The Savage Curtain")
- The space amoeba was described by Spock as being approximately 11,000 miles in length, with a width varying from 2,000 to 3,000 miles. (TOS: "The Immunity Syndrome")
- In explaining to "the 37's" what had happened to them four hundred years earlier, Kathryn Janeway stated that it was believed that they "were abducted from Earth in the 1930s, and brought millions of miles through space to a planet on the other side of the galaxy." (VOY: "The 37's")