>> To convert from the nautical system, which is based on the distance between lines on the earth (60 Nautical Miles = the distance between the latitude lines on the earth drawn 1 degree apart). There are 90 degrees of latitude between the earth's Equator and the True North Pole. Now, the radius of the earth is 6,370, 000 meters and 1/4 of the circumference (2 Pi times the diameter) is .25 x 2 x 3.141592654 x 6,370,000 =10,005,972.6 metres. Ok, now divide this by 90 and get 111177.4734. Now divide this by 60 to get 1853 meters (1.85 km) per Nautical mile. >> ************************************************************************** * A more useful relationship to know is that one minute of latitude equals one nautical mile (minutes of longitude, of course, vary in size depending on the latitude). Thus, on a nautical chart, you can use the latitude notations on the sides of the chart as a distance scale. Just stretch a string from, say, the 54o 30' 00" mark to the 54o 31' 00" mark. That is a distance of one nautical mile. You can then use the string to measure the distance of a crossing in nautical miles without referring to the map legend. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Mar 11 1998 - 15:05:36 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:29:54 PDT