Why are there nautical miles but no nautical kilome

[micky]

This is from Wikip's article on Gemini 8:

Perigee (min): 159.8 kilometers (86.3 nautical miles)

Why are there nautical miles but no nautical kilometers?

[Clare Snyder]

Why shouldthere be? A naughtical mile is equivalent to 1 degree of latitude. A statute mile is an arbitrary measurement. The origins of the meter go back to at least the 18th century. At that time, there were two competing approaches to the definition of a standard unit of length. Some suggested defining the meter as the length of a pendulum having a half-period of one second; others suggested defining the meter as one ten-millionth of the length of the earth's meridian along a quadrant (one fourth the circumference of the earth). In 1791, soon after the French Revolution, the French Academy of Sciences chose the meridian definition over the pendulum definition because the force of gravity varies slightly over the surface of the earth, affecting the period of the pendulum.

Why add another arbitrary measurement to the mix????

[rbowman]

One minute of latitude. 1 degree is 60 NM.

[circumference]

Will the length of a nautical mile become longer when climate change causes the sea level to rise?

[Wade Garrett]

Then again, you could just go to The Home Depot, buy a tape measure or yard stick, and not worry about it so much...

[micky]

Great explanation.

I don't know, but sometimes they seem to do that just to complicate my life.