Marcus wrote in USMA 9590:
>On Wed, 6 Dec 2000 23:58:52 kilopascal wrote:
>>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.
>>
>And I respectfully disagree with doing that, John. But I hope that you'll
>understand why I'm opposed to it (more below).
>
>>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.
>>
>And that is *precisely* one of the reasons why I oppose it! Let confusion
>reign on this. Confusion is our friend! ;-) We don't want to see
>ifpists having "easier" lives. Let them swallow their own (bitter) pill!
>Besides we're advocating for this... thing to be dropped out of existence
>altogether, therefore, why... "fix" it???
The nautical mile is approximately one minute of latitude measured
north-south. It is unlikely that the nautical mile will be abolished until
new maps and charts are available gridded in gons (or, if you prefer,
grads). Then the kilometre would replace the nautical mile for navigation.
The nautical mile is much older than the metric system. The British
nautical mile was 6080 ft. (1853.184 m). 29 An international conference
in Monaco in 1929 defined the International nautical mile as 1852 m.
