3 ms·

In Aviation, Imperial units are used for altitude, distance and speed. https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/2566/what-is-the-measurement-system-used-in

In Aviation, Imperial units are used for altitude, distance and speed. https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/2566/what-is-the-measurement-system-used-in-the-aviation-industry https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/2566/what-is-th...

addaon 3y ago
> In Aviation, Imperial units are used for altitude, distance and speed. In my experience, US pilots usually use feet for altitude, but use nautical miles for distance and knots for speed, not standard Imperial units.
- remarkEon 3y ago
  Right, I only meant that the metric system is not used. But I'm confused. Are feet and NM not part of the standard Imperial units of measure?
  - pacificmint 3y ago
    An imperial mile is 1,609 meters. A nautical mile is 1,852 meters.
  - eCa 3y ago
    Nautical miles are globally used and are older than the imperial units by a couple of hundred years[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile
  - chungy 3y ago
    Feet, nautical miles, statutory miles, and meters are all part of the United States Customary Units. "Imperial units" is ambiguous and can refer to many different sets of units all sharing the same name. US Customary units use SI as a baseline for measuring based on physical constants, and standardized conversions from them to units very similar to what was conventional. Eg, since the meter is defined by the distance light travels in a vacuum for the duration of 1/299,792,458 second, and the US defines an inch to be exactly 2.54 cm, any refinement to the speed of light inherently changes the length of an inch. 12 inches equals a foot, a mile equals 5280 feet (exactly 1609.344 meters), and all these things are based on physical constants. Nautical miles are defined as exactly 1852 meters, which is approximately 1.15 miles.
    - remarkEon 3y ago
      That's my bad for not being clear.
  - addaon 3y ago
    Just like "metric" can refer to CGS or MKS, "imperial" can refer to... well, whatever you want. But usually in the US when we say "imperial", we mean statute miles as the mile unit, not nautical miles.
  - stergios 3y ago
    "Pounds of fuel" are used when, after declaring an inflight emergency, ATC requests information for on ground fire rescue along with number of souls on board.
  - shiroiuma 3y ago
    >Are feet and NM not part of the standard Imperial units of measure? In addition to the other replies you're getting here, the US for instance does not use imperial units, despite what many people on the internet believe. Imperial units are used by the UK (hence the term "imperial"). The US uses "US customary units", which sometimes overlap with UK units, and other times have the same name but are different. An imperial gallon is quite different from a US gallon, for instance, but imperial and US inches are the same.
bamboozled 3y ago
Knots are used but you have no idea how fast a knot feels.

addaon 3y ago

> In Aviation, Imperial units are used for altitude, distance and speed. In my experience, US pilots usually use feet for altitude, but use nautical miles for distance and knots for speed, not standard Imperial units.

remarkEon 3y ago
Right, I only meant that the metric system is not used. But I'm confused. Are feet and NM not part of the standard Imperial units of measure?
- pacificmint 3y ago
  An imperial mile is 1,609 meters. A nautical mile is 1,852 meters.
- eCa 3y ago
  Nautical miles are globally used and are older than the imperial units by a couple of hundred years[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile
- chungy 3y ago
  Feet, nautical miles, statutory miles, and meters are all part of the United States Customary Units. "Imperial units" is ambiguous and can refer to many different sets of units all sharing the same name. US Customary units use SI as a baseline for measuring based on physical constants, and standardized conversions from them to units very similar to what was conventional. Eg, since the meter is defined by the distance light travels in a vacuum for the duration of 1/299,792,458 second, and the US defines an inch to be exactly 2.54 cm, any refinement to the speed of light inherently changes the length of an inch. 12 inches equals a foot, a mile equals 5280 feet (exactly 1609.344 meters), and all these things are based on physical constants. Nautical miles are defined as exactly 1852 meters, which is approximately 1.15 miles.
  - remarkEon 3y ago
    That's my bad for not being clear.
- addaon 3y ago
  Just like "metric" can refer to CGS or MKS, "imperial" can refer to... well, whatever you want. But usually in the US when we say "imperial", we mean statute miles as the mile unit, not nautical miles.
- stergios 3y ago
  "Pounds of fuel" are used when, after declaring an inflight emergency, ATC requests information for on ground fire rescue along with number of souls on board.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  >Are feet and NM not part of the standard Imperial units of measure? In addition to the other replies you're getting here, the US for instance does not use imperial units, despite what many people on the internet believe. Imperial units are used by the UK (hence the term "imperial"). The US uses "US customary units", which sometimes overlap with UK units, and other times have the same name but are different. An imperial gallon is quite different from a US gallon, for instance, but imperial and US inches are the same.

bamboozled 3y ago

Knots are used but you have no idea how fast a knot feels.