What exactly is a knot and how fast or long is it???

Question

Im not even sure if i spelled it right, but i hear it in movies, especially movies involving ships. They say the ship is moving at 40 knots, or something like that. If i am spelling it wrong please let me know how to spell it right too.

Answer 1

A bit more:

A knot is one nautical mile per hour.

A nautical mile equals one minute of latitude, or 1/60 of one degree.

A knot is about 1.15 statute miles per hour.

Speed in knots is usually measured with GPS or little paddle wheel under the boat called a knotmeter.  In the old days, one threw a line overboard with knots tied in it at regular intervals.   One could use the number of knots passing through one's hands over a certain period of time to calculate boat speed through the water.

One can talk about speed over ground or speed through water.  They are not necessarily the same thing.

Answer 2

A knot is a unit of speed. It is one nautical mile per hour. Never say, "knots per hour." the time unit is implied.

Answer 3

If memory serves me, during the days of sailing vessels the spacing between the knots on the rope (mentioned in other replies) was the distanct between one's outstretched hands - which is also a "fathom" for measuring depth.

Answer 4

One knot (your spelling's fine) is one nautical mile per hour.

Answer 5

and because the word "knot" in and of itself is a measurement of speed there is no need to say "knots per hour"...  if you do it makes you sound like a dumba$$.Kinda like when people call fenders: bumpers

Answer 6

A knot is a measure of speed. It is the speed at which you travel a nautical mile. Or one minute of latitude.

You will hear it in movies in reference to speed of ships and planes. I believe Maverick and the boys in "Top Gun" talk about flying in terms of knots.

A nautical mile is 6076 feet which is 1.15 times a statue mile. So to find miles per hour multiply knots by 1.15

In your example:

40 knots times 1.15 = 46 miles per hour.

Please note: knots is never expressed as "knots per hour" it is simply knots.

Answer 7

A nautical mile is 1.1508 miles, or 6,076 feet. The term knot is derived from the days of wooden sailing ships. To figure out how fast a ship was moving they allowed a knotted rope to trail out behind the ship for  a given amount of time. The knots were carefully tied an even distance from each other. As this rope trailed out the navigator counted how many knots passed through his hand. Then using simple math he could calculate how fast the ship is moving.

Answer 8

AXEL IS CORRECT