In naval tradition, the saying is "a minutes, a mile" --- that is, a minute of latitude equals a nautical mile. Of course, there has been much variation and the international nautical mile is now set to 1852 m exactly.
But I found an interesting page on a similar topic: http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/units/sea.htm "If you want an irrelevant fact, one minute of arc on Mars is close to a kilometre (.987 km to be more accurate). Perhaps the French who defined the kilometre were really Martians!" The nekkid decimal point is not my fault! I would have written 0.987 km. Jim -- James R. Frysinger Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist Senior Member, IEEE http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Office: Physics Lab Manager, Lecturer Dept. of Physics and Astronomy University/College of Charleston 66 George Street Charleston, SC 29424 843.953.7644 (phone) 843.953.4824 (FAX) Home: 10 Captiva Row Charleston, SC 29407 843.225.0805
