Math Project

A nautical mile is used to measure the sea. It developed from the sea mile. There was
not an internationally agreed distance for the nautical mile until 1929. Prior to 1929
different countries had different ideas for the distance of the nautical mile, for example
the United States thought the nautical mile was 6080.20 feet or 1853 meters, but in
1954 the United States accepted the internationally agreed upon distance of
6076.11549 feet. In the UK they based the nautical mile of the knot. A knot is a unit of
speed based off of dragging a knotted rope from sailing ships. The number of knots
falling into the water over a time period shows how many knots per hour. Using knots
the UK decided that one nautical mile was 6080 feet, but since 1970 their distance of a
nautical mile has been 1853 meters. Nautical miles are beneficial in navigation, to make
it easier to navigate sailors and aviators created nautical charts so that they can have
graphic representations of the earth, but their focus was the water. Nautical miles are
old navy terms. The nautical mile was based on the circumference of the earth at the
equator. Because the earth is 360 degrees around, and degrees are broken into 60
"minutes", the formula to find out the size of the earth in nautical miles is 360 x 60 so
the earth is ideally 21 600 nautical miles. Nautical miles are still used for their
convenience while working with charts.