How would the furlong measurement would be used?

Answer 1

Today the unit enjoys very limited use. Distances for thoroughbred horse races in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and the United States are still given in miles and furlongs (example). It is heavily used within the rail industry (especially maintenance and repair services) in the UK, due to the legacy measurements and distance markers from when the tracks were first laid down (see milestone). The furlong is a base unit of the humorous FFF System of units. The city of Chicago's street numbering system allots a measure of 800 address units to each mile. Logically, streets were subsequently laid out 8 to the mile. This means that every block in a typical Chicago neighborhood (in either North/South or East/West direction but rarely both) is approximately one furlong in length. Salt Lake City's blocks are also each a square furlong in the downtown area. However, the blocks are irregular in shape as one moves further out from the centre, but the numbering system remains the same (800 units to each mile) everywhere in Salt Lake County. Bus stops in Ann Arbor, Michigan are about a furlong apart. Blocks in central Logan, Utah, and in large sections of Phoenix, Arizona are similarly a square furlong in extent (eight to a mile, which explains the series of freeway exits: 19th Ave, 27th, 35th, 43rd, 51st, 59th...). City blocks in Melbourne's Hoddle Grid are also one furlong in length.