Seamen have used Nautical miles for centuries. What is it's special significance that lead to it's use?

Answer 1

It is equal to 1,852 meters, 1.15 miles, or 1 minute of latitude on a meridian line. The reason that they developed this was because at that time, they did not have gauges to physically install on the watercraft to tell how fast it was going. This is because water constantly is moving, so even if the ship was remaining still, a "speedometer" of sorts would still show it to be moving, especially in areas with high currents. So another system had to be devised to show how far the craft actually traveled in relation to the earth itself rather than by how much water passed underneath. The nautical mile was derived from the geographical mile which is equal to one degree of arc (since the Earth is round) or curve at the equator.

Answer 2

A nautical mile is exactly the length of 1 minute of arc on the earth's surface. So there are exactly 60 nautical miles in 1 degree of latitude or 1 degree of longitude at the equator.

Answer 3

psycho almost had it till he brought in "time"

a nautical mile is, as other said, a measurement of the Earths circumference ( 60 minutes of arc in a degree, 360 degrees in a circle = 21,600 nautical miles around the Earth )
so its one nautical mile in a minute, which is where 'a mile a minute' comes from.......it has nothing to do with 60mph.....


this was an international standard everyone could relate to and agree upon; land miles were subject to the local governments idea ..there was an English mile and a French mile for years and years, just as there was an Imperial gallon and an American gallon......so if you said a nautical mile everyone knew just what you were referring to......

Answer 4

One seamile is the circumference of the earth deived by 24 divided by 60 divided by 60. This means that while navigatimh using a sextant, where time is of the essence, one second equals one seamile.