eli5: what is the difference between a land mile and a nautical mile?

Question

Why are there two different definitions that are close but not exactly identical?

In: 1

Answer 1

The nautical mile is really useful for sea travel because it is the distance of one minute of latitude and nautical charts measure using latitude and longitude. If you were travelling straight south at 10kts, or 10 nautical miles per hour, then it would take six hours to travel one degree of latitude.

1 nautical mile = 1.1508 miles.

Ref: [https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nautical-mile-knot.html](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nautical-mile-knot.html)

The “statute” mile has its origins in ancient Rome and was the thousand paces as measured by every other step, one thousand times the left foot comes down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile#Roman