Why does aviation use nautical miles

On land, a mile is a length of 5, feet. A nautical mile is a unit of distance used for air and sea travel that is equal to 1, meters or 1. Nautical miles are based on one minute of arc on the sphere of Earth, with 60 minutes of arc per degree longitude. A nautical mile is a unit of distanceunit of distanceLength is a measure of distance.

In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived.

Sea winds are measured in knots simply because of maritime tradition. This is why 1 knot is equal to 1 nautical mile per hour.

Knots Miles per hour ——— ————— 22 knots The body beautiful. Red tape, white lies. Speculative science. This sceptred isle.

Root of all evil. Ethical conundrums. This sporting life. Nautical miles are used for navigation, mainly because a nautical mile is one minute of a degree on the surface of Earth's geoid.

Kilometers and statute miles are each a fixed distance unit, nautical miles are not a fixed straight line distance but are a fixed fraction of the earth's circumference. Very useful for long range navigation and triangulation, 60 miles to each degree and exactly nautical miles per circumnavigation. Sign up to join this community.

The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. When ATC uses distances, are they using nautical miles or statute miles? Ask Question. Asked 3 years, 4 months ago.

However, aviation navigation has adopted the ways of its marine counterpart, as it also travels across distances great enough to cross several latitudal lines. Not to mention to save air traffic control a great deal of potential confusion when communicating with international pilots. The NM is based on the circumference of the Earth. For a weekend cruise on a sailboat or a short European domestic hop, the fact that we live on a sphere hurtling through space and wobbling around its own axis is not of great importance.

Meanwhile, when traveling long great circle distances, you want to use a unit that is directly related to latitude and longitude.