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Knots vs. MPH

Would we then have to call the left wing Port (Larboard for you ancients out there) and the right Starboard? The struts would then be the Mainbrace and the fly wires - Backstays? We could call the VG's - Royal's.

Yes, yes I know I'm carrying this a bit too far. :D
 
Starboard

I was told "starboard" is of old for the "steering board" side of old ships that had their rudders mounted on the side and were called "steering boards". The ship was always docked with the "steering board" on the outside so it wouldn't get broken banging aginst the dock. This made to other side of the ship "port". Crash
 
knots or MPH

A couple of years ago my wife and I took a trip to Cape Cod. While there we visited the reproduction Mayflower at Plymouth, Mass. One of the crew explained to us that the term 'Knots' came from the rope that was played out to determine the ship's speed. The rope (which had a bucket attached to it for drag) had knots tied at pre-determined lengths and the crew could determine the ship's speed by timing how many knots passed overboard during a pre-determined time. Thus, a nautical mile equals 1.15 statute miles or so I'm told. I haven't tried tossing a knotted rope out with a bucket attached to test this theory out but I still love yankin' and bankin' in the Supercub no matter what the ASI is calibrated in!
Cheers, eh.
 
HI,

i actually like knots a lot better than anything else. Although i wish SI/metric units would be used everywhere, knots just make sense in aviation....After all it is not just a unit defined by somebody based on whatever, it is based on the physical properties of the earth.

60 NM = 1° , 1NM = 1'

seems very logic to me......

Mirko
 
Knots vs MPH

A lot of aeronautical terms have their origins in nautical words (like, aero-nautical). I like them too, unlike metric. Metric is for weenies.
 
The ship story is correct, and why we spell it knots, instead of nauts.
If you tie a knot every 100', and play it out for one minute, the number of knots that went overboard is the number of nautical miles you'll cover relative to the current in one hour.

Nautical miles are nice because they line up with minutes of latitude, but meters have a basis in the earth's size as well. It's pretty close to 10,000 km's from the equator to the pole, or 1 million meters. If the french had been successful in changing angles so they were decimal instead of based on 360 degrees, it might have been a pretty nice system. Since they didn't succeed, it's 1852 meters per minute of latitude, which really isn't that nice.
 
I like MPH! When I am over a road, I can read the speed limit signs, know that the cars are passing my by a couple miles per hour and if I am over the water on wheels I am knot going down there unless the prop stops!

Tim

Besides isn't "Port" some kind of French wine? I am knot going there either!
 
Nope, Port is from Port-ugal.
Better not go there either; they use metric, as well.

Bent 8)
 
Hey Tim,
Did you notice in Canada that with the 80 kph limit, it's hard to figure out how long it will take you to get to milepost 422?
KL
 
I like knots and don't need no calculator to make the corrections in my head. Of course I attended school in the 50s and 60s when we didn't have calculators and such allowed. Used to do a my window sales at McDonalds in my head without a cash register. My drawer was always accurate to the penny. As to Port, If I'm going to drink Port, eat seafood or anything else I'd rather do it in Portugal than anywhere in France. Nauts to you all..Jeff
 
It's really quite elementary my dear Watson.
simply take miles per hour and multiply by 44.704 to get cm/sec then multiply by .0006 to get km/min and then multiply by 32.397 to get knots.Or if you have a pilot III you can get it by hitting the enter button acouple of times.
 
Ok,

For all you SUPERCUB DRIVERS that think KNOTS ar KNOT correct for SUPERCUBS , you might KNOT be correct as you still need KNOTS or whats going to hold your plane down and stops it from blowing over in a high wind????

KNOTS in a rope..... THEREFORE you better know your KNOTS.... :lol:
 
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