Is a nautical mile the same distance as a regular land mile, in feet?
2006-12-22 23:53:59 · 13 answers · asked by jeanrad13 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Geography
A nautical mile, 6076.11549 feet, is one minute of latitude. Some define it as a minute of longitude at the equator, which is as nearly the same, it made little difference (about 4 feet) until GPS came in and permitted pinpoint accuracy in navigation. A land mile, of course, is 5,280 feet.
2006-12-22 23:56:58 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
A land mile is a set distance, whereas a nautical mile will vary slightly in length depending on how close you are to the equator. this is all to do with the way the the earth can be seperated into degrees, but because it's not perfectly round, by the time you get to the outer edge near the poles the disatnce between is greater than the distance near the equator. it's hard to explain but if you draw an orb on the page and draw lines going from the middle out, all at the same degrees in the middle you will see that as you go further north the distance becomes larger. each of these degrees is then divided into forty (i think, but it's been a while since i did this) and these are nautical miles, therfore at the poles a nautical mile is longer than at the eqautor. it is hard to explain without drwaing a picture but i hope you've followed my gist! If you ever look at a sailing chart you will see this is taking into account as variability.
2016-05-23 01:30:24 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A nautical mile is about 15% longer than a land mile
2006-12-23 04:38:16 · answer #3 · answered by rosie recipe 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The difference, as told to me in layman terms by our Navigator on my first boat was that a Nautical mile takes in account for the curvature of the earth, whereas land miles do not. Which makes sense for ships because you are talking about tens of thousands of miles traveled to get from place to place, versus a few hundred or a thousand miles on land.
Therefore nautical miles are a little longer than a land mile.
2006-12-23 03:41:39 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A land mile, or statute mile, is a linear measurement.
A nautical mile, or a knot, is a curvilinear measure to account for the shape of the earth over long distances.
one statute mile = 1.8 nautical miles.
2006-12-23 05:43:32 · answer #5 · answered by trimetrov 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A land mile is 1760 yards = 1760 * 3 = 5280 ft.
A Nautical mile is the unit of length used in navigation;
It is equivalent to the distance spanned by one minute of arc in latitude. It is now replaced by the International Nautical Mile.
The International Nautical Mile = 1,852 meters = 6076.12 ft.
2006-12-23 00:12:42 · answer #6 · answered by Longfellow 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
you can actually figure this out yourself
one nautical mile represents 1 minute of latitude measured at the equator.
there are 60 minutes to a degree and of course there are 360 degrees in a circle
Therefore measured in minutes ,the earth 21600 minutes around or nautical miles
find out the equatorial diameter of the earth in statue miles and the rest is easy
2006-12-23 16:00:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
1 knot (nautical mile) = 1.8 kilometres
1 land mile = 1.6 kilometres
2006-12-23 00:09:28 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
1 knot = 1.8 miles
2006-12-23 00:07:07 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
no
nautical mile - 6076.11549 ft
land mile - 5280 ft
2006-12-23 00:06:41 · answer #10 · answered by OU812 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋