Nautical mile 1 sea mile", followed by "For most practical purposes distance is measured from the latitude scale, assuming that one minute of latitude equals one nautical mile". One tenth of a nautical mile is a cable length. The derived unit of speed is the knot, defined as one nautical mile per hour. The metre was originally defined as of the meridian arc from the North pole to the equator passing through Dunkirk. The Earth’s circumference is therefore approximately 40,000 km. The equatorial circumference is slightly longer than the polar circumference – the measurement based on this (40,075.017 km x x =
Nautical time communicating with land, the land time zone must be employed. The nautical time zone system is an ideal form of the terrestrial time zone system for use on high seas. Under the system time changes are required for changes of longitude in one-hour steps. The one-hour step corresponds to a time zone width of 15° longitude. The 15° gore that is offset from GMT or UT1 (not UTC) by twelve hours is bisected by the nautical date line into two 7°30′ gores that differ from GMT by ±12 hours. A nautical date line is implied but not explicitly drawn on