4 ms·

Nautical miles are a fun unit. They are one minute of arc of the earth's surface (idealized), so it makes sense why they took hold in the two forms of travel t

Nautical miles are a fun unit. They are one minute of arc of the earth's surface (idealized), so it makes sense why they took hold in the two forms of travel that regularly travel great circle routes.

fanf2 7y ago
There is a similar relationship between gradians (metric angles) and kilometres https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradian
ims 7y ago
One minute of latitude for those wondering how this works.
- ddalex 7y ago
  Thank you! I was wondering how these work around the poles!
- iso947 7y ago
  1nm is about 1/60th of a degree of any great circle on the earths surface (Earth isn’t a sphere so it’s not exact, but it’s pretty close)