Why is "Knots" the term used for speed of ships instead of Mph or Kph?

Question

Wouldn't it be easier to use standard kph or mph for easy comparison?

Answer 1

Knots is nautical mph. A nautical mile is 1.15 statute miles. There is no need for comparison. The reson for use is that you are going over the surface of water with no roads so you use the earth as a measure. A nautical mile is one minute of latitude. 360 degrees around the earth, 60 minutes in a degree. It is further broken down into 60 seconds per minute for location on charts.

Answer 2

It all goes back in history. The equipment consisted of a timber connected to a rope with knots tied in it at 3' intervals. Sailors would throw the "log" off the ship and see how many knots were pulled out in a given time and that would give the ships speed. Nautical charts are set up using nautical miles as the distance, not statute miles like on a regular map. A statute mile is 5280 feet and a nautical mile is 6076 feet. A "knot" is 1.15 times faster than a mph.

Answer 3

It is believed that the term originated in the Netherlands sometime in the 1500s. Back in the days of sailing vessels, captains needed a method of measuring the speed of their ships through the water. One of the methods the Dutch had devised was the practice of tossing a piece of wood into the water and measuring how quickly it moved away from the ship, a concept called "Heaving the Log." A more accurate method based on the same idea was the "Chip Log" technique. The Chip Log system, depicted above, was made up of a wooden weight tied to a reel of rope with knots tied in it at equal intervals. When the wooden weight was tossed overboard, the rope would be pulled out along with it. The faster the ship was traveling through the water, the more rope would be unwound from the reel. Sailors would simply count the number of knots that were pulled off the reel in a given amount of time, as determined by an hourglass, and that would determine the speed of the ship in "knots."

By the way i copied that from the website (look below)

Answer 4

Knots refers to nautical miles per hour. A Knot or a nautical mile is one minute of latitude at the equator. So it was easier to judge speed and distance at sea.
Some years ago, many aircraft came with airspeed indicators in MPH. I prefer MPH. DME (distance measuring equipment) and GPS units all (I think) can be set up to display either MPH or NMPH. Newer aircraft are standardized with NMPH.

Answer 5

The reason is historical (speed on sailing shiops was measured by dropping a timber log in the water that was fixed to a line with knots in it in regular distances).

Would it be better to use standard speed measures? Philosophical question, I reckon. Argued like that, the metric system should be used everywhere (it is already the one used in most countries anyway). Don't hold your breath though; the Americans are not going to get rid of their miles and gallons...

Answer 6

THere was some tradition that a knotted rope thrown into the water could tell your speed hence knots I guesse it kind of stuck