Nautical mile Nautical mile A nautical mile (also known as an air mile) is a unit of measurement defined as exactly . Historically, it was defined as one minute of latitude, which is one sixtieth of a degree of latitude – i.e. since a minute of a degree is x = , the Earth's polar circumference is approximately 21,600 nautical miles. It is a non-SI unit which today has a continued use in both air and marine navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. There is no single internationally agreed symbol. While using M itself, the International Bureau of Weights and
Longitude rewards Longitude Act only addressed the determination of longitude at sea. Determining longitude reasonably accurately on land was, from the 17th century onwards, possible using the Galilean moons of Jupiter as an astronomical 'clock'. The moons were easily observable on land, but numerous attempts to reliably observe them from the deck of a ship resulted in failure. For details on other efforts towards determining the longitude, see History of longitude. The need for better navigational accuracy for increasingly longer oceanic voyages had been an issue explored by many European nations for centuries before the passing of the Longitude Act in England