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Why do sailors use knots and fathoms instead of mph and feet or meters?
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
A "knot" is one nautical mile per hour and one nautical mile is defined as one minute of an angle along any of the earth's great circles. The obvious benefit is that using knots, you get your displacement with respect to the earth's coordinates. As an example, flying at 60 knots (groundspeed), east or west along the equator for one hour means you travel one degree of longitude in every hour. Usage of earth's cordinates is beneficial in aerial and oceanic navigation.
Cars use roads, which are well documented and its standard measurements (km or miles) suits fine.
As a general rule, wherever latitudes and longitudes are used for source and destination identification, knots are used. Between cities and towns, km or mile would suffice.
KIAS stands for Knots, Indicated Air Speed. And just for the record, one nautical mile is 1852 meters exactly.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoBecause a nautical mile (6000 feet) is longer than a statute mile (5280 feet).
The nautical one is a fraction of the Earth's circumference,
the statute one is a left-over from the Roman army.
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What is the speed in meters per second travelling at 20 knots?
20 knots is 10.29 meters per second.
How do you converts knots to meter per second?
Use this formula:knots x 0.5144 = meters per second
What unit is used to measure sea level?
A league ************************ That's a very old term! Nautical miles
What is the actual speed of 489 knots?
The actual speed is 489 knots. However, the speed converted into different units are as follows: 251.56 meters/second, 562.73 miles/hour, or .7589 mach.
What are Celtic knots mainly used for?
Celtic knots are known for their use in ornamentation of Christian monuments. Celtic knots can be graphical representation of knots or actual knots in these decorations.
What is the speed in meters per second travelling at 20 knots?
20 knots is 10.29 meters per second.
How fast was the titanic traveling up until the time sailors saw the iceberg?
24 knots was the speed in which they were traveling when the sailors saw the ice burg
What is the speed in meters per second of a ship traveling at twenty knots?
10.2888888 is the speed in meters per second of a ship traveling at 20 knots.
Where did the use of the term knots to measure the speed of a ship originate?
It originated in reference to the knots sailors tied in the rope used to measure the distance a ship travled. E2020's answer
What tools were used on the HMS Challenger?
"Sailors have long used ropes with weights on the end to measure depths in shallow water. Often they tied knots 6 feet (1 fathom) apart in the rope for ease of measurement. The number of knots let out gave the depth in fathoms once the weight hit the bottom. The first accurate physical measurements of the deep ocean bottom were made by Sir J. Clark Ross in 1840 who measured a depth of 4435 meters off Antarctica. Later, extensive depth recordings were taken by scientists on the H.M.S. Challenger using steam-driven winches with one inch hemp rope that did not tangle."
Where does knots come from?
Knots is the form of measurement of the speed of boats. It was originally measured by a board being dropped in the water with a rope tied to it, the other end of the rope was tied to the stern of the boat. This rope had knots tied into it at 14.4 meters apart. The one sailor would use a 30 second glass sand timer while another would let the rope out behind the boat. When 30 seconds were up the number of knots on the rope that had gone thru the sailors hands were the speed they were traveling. Dividing that 14.4 meters by 30 seconds told them that one knot equaled 1.85166 kilometers per hour, or one nautical mile.
What is the speed in meters per second of a boat traveling at a speed of 12.3 knots?
6.32766667 meters per second ==
A sail boat broke a speed record by traveling at an average speed of 44.5 knots over 500 metersWhat is the average rate of speed in knots per meter?
.089 knots per meter or 11.23 meters per knots
Is smiggle closing down forever?
no, instead its growing at the rate of knots!
Do different type of knots affect the breaking strength of a rope?
yes * Added - A rope is weakened by any knot, with the "worst" knots taking away as much as 60% of the ropes strength. This is why sailors and professionals learn a wide variety of knots, hitches, and bends to use the best one for the job.
How did Tudor sailors measure speed?
They measured using a log and Knots on a rope (from History: Teacher Book Bk. 5 by T. Whiteford )
Why do planes use knots instead of MPH?
Tradition, of course. But why would you want to replace one obsolete unit by another unit that is also obsolete? The correct unit for speed is meters/second, or perhaps kilometers/hour.
