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A nautical mile
is
based on the circumference of the planet Earth. If you
were to cut the Earth in half at the equator, you could
pick up one of the halves and look at the equator as a
circle. You could divide that circle into 360 degrees.
You could then divide a degree into 60 minutes. A minute
of arc on the planet Earth is 1 nautical mile. This unit
of measurement is used by all nations for air and sea
travel.
A knot is a unit of
measure for speed. If you are traveling at a speed of 1
nautical mile per hour, you are said to be traveling at a
speed of 1 knot.
A kilometer is also defined
using the planet Earth as a standard of distance. If you
were to take the Earth and cut it in half along a line
passing from the North Pole through Paris, and then
measure the distance of the curve running from the North
Pole to the equator on that circle, and then divide that
distance by 10,000, you would have the traditional unit
for the kilometer as defined in 1791 by the French Academy
of Sciences.
A nautical mile is 1,852
meters, or 1.852 kilometers. In the English
measurement system, a nautical mile is 1.1508 miles,
or 6,076 feet.
To travel around the Earth
at the equator, you would have to travel (360 * 60) 21,600
nautical miles, 24,857 miles or 40,003 kilometers.
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