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A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. [2] [3] [4] Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( 1 / 60 of a degree) of latitude at the equator, so that Earth's polar circumference is very near to 21,600 nautical miles (that is 60 minutes × 360 degrees).
Unit Type Notes Cable length: Length: Fathom: Length: Knot: Speed: League: Length: Nautical mile: Length: Rhumb: Angle: The angle between two successive points of the thirty-two point compass (11 degrees 15 minutes) (rare) [1]
Although most contemporary accounts used an Arabic mile of 6 444 feet (1,964 metres), which gave a Spanish league of the degree of 25,776 feet (7,857 metres or 4.242 modern nautical miles) others defined an Arabic mile as just 6,000 feet making a Spanish league of the degree 24,000 feet (or 7,315 metres, almost exactly 3.95 modern nautical miles).
This is because the distance between Earth and the Sun is not fixed (it varies between 0.983 289 8912 and 1.016 710 3335 au) and, when Earth is closer to the Sun , the Sun's gravitational field is stronger and Earth is moving faster along its orbital path. As the metre is defined in terms of the second and the speed of light is constant for all ...
Lunar distance LD ≈ 384 402 km. [15] Average distance between the center of Earth and the center of the Moon. astronomical unit au. Defined as 149 597 870 700 m. [16] Approximately the distance between the Earth and Sun. light-year ly ≈ 9 460 730 472 580.8 km. The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year. [17]
vehicle-kilometre (vkm [1]) as a measure of traffic flow, determined by multiplying the number of vehicles on a given road or traffic network by the average length of their trips measured in kilometres. [2] vehicle-mile (vehicle miles traveled, or VMT [1]) same as before but measures the trip expressed in miles.
The radar mile is a unit of time (in the same way that the light year is a unit of distance), equal to the time required for a radar pulse to travel a distance of two miles (one mile each way). Thus, the radar statute mile is 10.8 μs and the radar nautical mile is 12.4 μs.
When each equatorial degree was divided into 18 leagues, the geographical mile was equal to 1 / 54 degree or about 2.06 kilometres (1.28 mi); when divided into 20 leagues, the geographical mile was equal to 1 / 60 degree, approximating the values provided above; and when divided into 25 leagues, the geographical mile was equal ...