2000-12-06
Why don't they just drop the term "mile" and just call the unit
"nautical(s)". Nautical miles per hour will still be called knots, but it
will be newly defined as nauticals per hour. I'm sure someone can come up
with a proper symbol.
The reason I think this would be a good idea is for a couple of reasons:
1.) It will dissolve the connection with statute miles.
2.) It will end the common practice of dropping the term "nautical" in
peoples minds when nautical mile is used, thus allowing people to assume a
nautical mile and statute mile are one and the same.
Which reminds me; when an airline pilot is telling the passengers that he
has x miles visibility or x miles of something, is he converting nautical
miles to statute, or is he really telling us nautical miles and just
dropping the term nautical? Does anyone know?
I'm sure someone else can also come up with some good reasons to change the
nautical mile name to something else.
John
There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they
are free!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of James R. Frysinger
Sent: Wednesday, 2000-12-06 19:23
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:9582] Re: CIA World Fact Book
I used "NM" in my career in the Navy and never saw it any other way,
except for the occasional "n. mi." or the spelled out version. There is
no international standard symbol for nautical mile that anyone on this
list could find.
Jim
Gregory Peterson wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> I faxed a suggestion to the CIA World Fact Book {they don't have
an email address for some strange reason..... >;) } asking them
to change the unit "nm" use for nautical miles to something more
appropriate since "nm" means "nanometres".
>
> Today I received a call from a Mr. Bob Frasier (he told me his
family was originally from Nova Scotia and he's related to the all
the Frasiers 'down-east'). He manages the World Fact Book and was
willing to change "nm" to "NM" since the Navy and Defence
Department also use this capitalized abbreviation. Good enough for
me. He also invited any other comments that I may have on the site.
>
> He told me that they receive 460'000 hits per month to their
site, mostly from American school children. Since this site is
primarily metric I was pleased to hear this statistic.
>
> greg
> Saskatoon SK Canada
--
Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!"
James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/
10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789
