Talk:Knot (speed)
From Academic Kids
knot is a unit of speed, not velocity. Speed is a scalar (distance over time) while velocity is a vector (displacement (direction vector) over time). A knot is obviously the former. Stewart Adcock 18:42, 20 Nov 2003 (UTC)
I'm changing the name of the article to "Knot (speed)" from "Knot (nautical)", because the unit is used not only for nautical things but also in meteorology and aviation. GrahamN 15:12, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)
- How about nautical mile per hour? –radiojon 03:09, 2004 Apr 2 (UTC)
The thing is known as a "knot", not a "nautical mile per hour". What's wrong with "Knot (speed)"? GrahamN 16:38, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Wrong data?
I've done some calculations, and unless I'm mistaken 1 knot equals 1.32 miles per hour, not 1.15 as the article states. Furthermore, I believe it would be more useful for international users if the equivalent speed in kilometers per hour (kph) was added, since it's a more familiar scale of speed, with which most people around the world can relate (not the case of miles per hour or metres per second). Regards, Redux 12:20, 14 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- My caclulations agree with the article. (If you follow the link on the number in the article, you'll see that Google's calculations agree as well.) But as for kph, that's easy: 1852 m/h = 1.852 km/h! Isn't the metric system nifty? -- Toby Bartels 05:33, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- You were right about the knot/mph ratio, I had miscalculated. I'd remove the "precisely" after the kph conversion though, since 1.852 is a round up (the actual precise number being 1.851999985024). I'm glad to have been of assistance in the m/h v. km/h thing. Regards, Redux 20:06, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Locale
where is the knot unit used? is it used outside of USA as well? Xah Lee 03:49, 2004 Oct 12 (UTC)
- I'd guess that the knot is usually used at sea. ;-) Yes, it is widely used outside the US. It is used in Britain at least. Stewart Adcock 00:20, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)
