NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Size of a nautical mile
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2009 Jan 15, 13:35 -0800
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2009 Jan 15, 13:35 -0800
As has been pointed out, the length of a degree of latitude varies from pole to equator. The nautical mile is supposed to equal a degree of latitude. Today, however, it is defined as precisely 1852 meters. When one multiplies 1852 by 7200 (the number of minutes in 90 degrees), one gets 10 000 800 meters as an answer. My understanding is that the distance from equator to pole is 10 002 000 meters. It's a small discrepency, on the order of 0.01%, but I'm wondering why it was allowed to stand instead of defining the NM more precisely. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---