Why is the railway gauge — the distance between rails — 4 feet, 8.5 inches?
One explanation is to be found here.
The development of the container in the 1950s and 1960s has had a great influence on the size and shape of containerports and containerships. You may read more about this interesting development in this book here. Although truck-trailers have increased in size (height, length), they are still hauled along lanes on highways that are not much broader than old contry roads.
So, is the story about the Horse’s South, the railway gauge and the two booster rockets of a space ship, just another myth (to be busted)? 
Many of our blogs contain some contemporary reflections, and do, as such, ask questions rather answer questions at the bottom line.
Today, our question is: What does determine the “standard” length of a journal article?
Árni
Ps. Many thanks to Prof. Marianne Jahre for telling me this story of the railway gauge during one of my visits at BI, Norway, two years ago.
This is a nice myth, but how do you explain differences in track gauges? Is there a difference in horse’s south ends?
Anyway, as for the standard length of a journal article, do you think it might have to do with how much academic text a reader can take without falling asleep? Who determined the standards of dull academic writing styles? (See the funny entry of Wikipedia on academic writing and its notes on “standard forms” and their length… I really hope this is just a “stub“.)
Gyöngyi
Let’s put it this way: I’m glad that Icelandic horses were not exported in large number in previous centuries.
The result would have been longer lead-times and smaller truck-loads than we have today.
Re. ‘academic’ articles; why not make a short printed version, and make the full paper available on-line? That could allow a lengthy discussion on e.g. research methods, and give space for more documentation of qualitative studies.