In short, name resolution does not use the records in WHOIS. Think of the WHOIS information as more of an administrative database, and the actual DNS servers (

In short, name resolution does not use the records in WHOIS. Think of the WHOIS information as more of an administrative database, and the actual DNS servers (which are located at the location of the NS records) as the operational database. It is useful to know, in your administrative database, how to get to the organisational database, but it does not hold all of the information -- just where it is located. In operational contexts (actual DNS lookups), you only use the operational database (the nameservers). In administrative contexts (transferring a domain between registrars), you use the information from the administrative database (WHOIS). There are additional wrinkles, like GLUE records, but those are probably a bit beyond the scope of what you're asking.