Why does boats measure speed in knots and not mph/kmh?
In: Physics
Earth is measured that way (nautical miles). Each degree of latitude is 60 nautical miles. Each second is 1 nautical mile. So the earth is 360 x 60 degrees (or nautical miles).
Therefore speed matches that unit for navigation purposes. Also, it becomes an important factor when choosing map projection styles (converting a globe to a 2D map)…but that is a tangent.
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