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<blockquote data-quote="moreluck" data-source="post: 872314" data-attributes="member: 1246">Today&#039;s useless fact - Exactly how fast is a knot and how did it get that name?Ahoy! For land-lubbers who don&#039;t know a <a href="http://www.askfactmaster.com/Sailing" target="_blank">sail</a> from a sale, knots measure the speed of ships. A knot is one nautical mile per hour, so a ship traveling at five knots is traversing five nautical miles per hour. That&#039;s simple enough, but why, inquiring pirates want to know, is it called a knot? The answer dates way back to the 17th century. To measure the speed and distance of a ship, knots were tied into a &quot;log line.&quot; This line was thrown overboard, an hourglass was tipped, and the knots were counted. When the sand ran out, the counting stopped, and a general speed was determined.Which brings us to the next seafaring query -- how long is a nautical mile? We&#039;re glad you asked, matey. A nautical mile is equal to about 1.15 survey miles, or 6080 feet.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="moreluck, post: 872314, member: 1246"] Today's useless fact - Exactly how fast is a knot and how did it get that name? Ahoy! For land-lubbers who don't know a [URL='http://www.askfactmaster.com/Sailing']sail[/URL] from a sale, knots measure the speed of ships. A knot is one nautical mile per hour, so a ship traveling at five knots is traversing five nautical miles per hour. That's simple enough, but why, inquiring pirates want to know, is it called a knot? The answer dates way back to the 17th century. To measure the speed and distance of a ship, knots were tied into a "log line." This line was thrown overboard, an hourglass was tipped, and the knots were counted. When the sand ran out, the counting stopped, and a general speed was determined. Which brings us to the next seafaring query -- how long is a nautical mile? We're glad you asked, matey. A nautical mile is equal to about 1.15 survey miles, or 6080 feet. [/QUOTE]

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