That approximation is only used in the USA, Liberia, and Myanmar tho. In the rest of the world, we use the metric maritime approximation,
π * φ km = e nm
justinl33 4 days ago [-]
historically, maritime navigation has always required much higher precision since a small error compounds into missing an island entirely.
land-based measurements could afford to be fuzzier because you can course-correct using visible landmarks. this is also why maritime measurements standardized globally much earlier than land measurements.
tiffanyh 4 days ago [-]
That was a super long post to just say “the ratio of mph/knots ≈ π/e … and it’s not very useful, but a cool coincidence.”
Philpax 4 days ago [-]
It's about the journey, not the destination.
tiffanyh 4 days ago [-]
There’s not much of a “journey” though … because both mile and knot are just arbitrary assigned measurements.
——-
mile = 1,000 paces (as defined by Romans)
knot = how many logs would pass by in 30 seconds.
There’s no mathematical reason why their value is what it is.
Unlike π and e that do.
ianburrell 4 days ago [-]
The nautical mile came first. It is one minute of longitude or latitude at equator.
The speed was measured with knots at specific lengths.
cb321 4 days ago [-]
Interesting to see xkcd's Randall Munroe's live tour linked!
Rendered at 09:52:26 GMT+0000 (UTC) with Wasmer Edge.
π * φ km = e nm
——-
mile = 1,000 paces (as defined by Romans)
knot = how many logs would pass by in 30 seconds.
There’s no mathematical reason why their value is what it is.
Unlike π and e that do.
The speed was measured with knots at specific lengths.