The Selection of 440HZ
 

OK, so here's today's NERD question: Does anyone know what the basis was for selecting 440HZ as A4? Is it a complete coincidence that the frequencies of all the octaves of the A note (in Hertz) perfectly match the values for yards in a mile?? eg:

A3 220 Eighth Mile
A4 440 Quarter Mile
A5 880 Half Mile
A6 1760 Mile

These distances are old friends to anyone who ran track. It's just odd that almost all the other notes are not whole numbers. For instance, good old middle C is 261.63 HZ. What sage way back in the old days picked 440 for A4, and why??

I know - Get a life.

I'm 99% positive that it was conceived before the imperial system, so yes it is probably a coincidence.