New unit of distance?

[elton]

Radio 4 news reports the sinking of a whale watching boat "12 nautical kilometers west of Tofino"

What does it mean?

 

[Stemar]

Amongst other things, it means there are several people who went out for a fun day out and came back dead.

 

[VicS]

Radio 4 news reports the sinking of a whale watching boat "12 nautical kilometers west of Tofino"

What does it mean?

12 x 1.852 x length of 1' of arc of latitude where measured.

 

[elton]

12 x 1.852 x length of 1' of arc of latitude where measured.

Seriously I don't know whether you're joking or not.

 

[ProDave]

Another report said it was a 20ft boat.

Nobody actually said what caused it to capsize? Did a whale come up underneath it?

 

[elton]

Should I assume nobody knows the answer to my question?

 

[ProDave]

Should I assume nobody knows the answer to my question?

It means gormless reporters who know nothing, like the ones I heard describing it as a 20ft boat with something like 28 people on it (I believe it was in fact a 20 metre boat)

 

[[448]]

Should I assume nobody knows the answer to my question?

A quick google comes up with this

http://www.brijvij.com/bbv_shelving-NMile.pdf

 

[elton]

It means gormless reporters who know nothing, like the ones I heard describing it as a 20ft boat with something like 28 people on it (I believe it was in fact a 20 metre boat)

Thanks for confirming. That's what I thought.

 

[elton]

A quick google comes up with this

http://www.brijvij.com/bbv_shelving-NMile.pdf

Yes, I found that when I Googled earlier, but it makes no sense to me.

 

[[448]]

Nor I (me)

 

[prv]

Should I assume nobody knows the answer to my question?

My guess is that someone who knows what they're talking about reported that the accident happened 7.5 nautical miles offshore.

The BBC numpty thought that kilometers would be more appropriate than old-fashioned miles, so converted 7.5 statute miles into 12 km. Then re-inserted the word "nautical" to sound more impressive.

Pete

 

[LadyInBed]

My guess is that someone who knows what they're talking about reported that the accident happened 7.5 nautical miles offshore.

The BBC numpty thought that kilometers would be more appropriate than old-fashioned miles, so converted 7.5 statute miles into 12 km. Then re-inserted the word "nautical" to sound more impressive.

Pete

Sound logic :encouragement:

 

[sailorman]

Another report said it was a 20ft boat.

Nobody actually said what caused it to capsize? Did a whale come up underneath it?

5 Brits dead & another pax missing

https://gcaptain.com/whale-watching-boat-capsizes-off-british-columbia/

 

[elton]

My guess is that someone who knows what they're talking about reported that the accident happened 7.5 nautical miles offshore.

The BBC numpty thought that kilometers would be more appropriate than old-fashioned miles, so converted 7.5 statute miles into 12 km. Then re-inserted the word "nautical" to sound more impressive.

Pete

Sadly, I think you're probably right

 

[johnalison]

12 x 1.852 x length of 1' of arc of latitude where measured.

Er. Isn't 1" of latitude a nautical mile? That would make your kilometer nearly two miles, which doesn't sound quite right to me.

 

[VicS]

Er. Isn't 1" of latitude a nautical mile? That would make your kilometer nearly two miles, which doesn't sound quite right to me.

Yes sorry it should have been divided by 1.852 ( or times 0.540)

 

[Alpha22]

Er. Isn't 1" of latitude a nautical mile? That would make your kilometer nearly two miles, which doesn't sound quite right to me.

Hey, if the BEEB are making up distances... who's to say how long they should be???

 

[macd]

As said, there's no such unit as a nautical km. A km is a km, period.
However, a km and a nautical mile do have something in common (as Vic's comments imply), since both are functions of the circumference of the planet. A km was originally defined as 1/10,000 of one quarter of a meridian, or the distance from equator to pole (as I've just seen the 'shelving nautical mile' link describes).

 

[guernseyman]

A quick google comes up with this

http://www.brijvij.com/bbv_shelving-NMile.pdf

The author appears to be slightly nutty, arguing that, because pi is defined as the ratio circumference/diameter it MUST be representable as a/b, where a and b are integers.
It's as nutty as the Indiana Pi Bill.