Kilometers vs Nautical miles
 

This question been bothering me since SHIII came out. Since the nautical mile (1 sec of arc-1851 meters) been the standard for sea navigation, is it historically correct to use kilometers? Did the Kriegsmarine navigators convert miles to kilometers for their plots? I find it annoying to have to convert to and from kilometers in the different calculations one needs to do in SHIII. :hmm:

hmmm

Historicaly correct to use Km's - yes i'd say so. The calculations they did at the time is by using Km's and you dont need to convert it.

ex. plot contacts with 3 minutes 15 sec. interval - the plot will show the speed of the target by measuring the range between plots and multiplying the kilometers with 10.

Example the target plots out to have 0.500 km's between plots - aka 5 knots.

Range to the TDC - Kilometers

length of ship in the recognitions handbook - meters

No need to convert anything.

Except when you need to calculate distances from speed/time, but thats where the 2 sheets top left from map screen come handy...

5 knots is 5 nautical miles in an hours, not one-half of a kilometer (0.500).

Sailor Steve - read it again :hmm:

A quick edit might save your "Skipper of the month" nomination..:up:

ahh heck let me make it easy for you - the example i drew there - - 3:15 minute rule plot.....

I am still surprised that sailors, even german, would use kilometers on sea maps as noone else does. The good reason being that 1 nautical mile = 1 minute of a meridian which makes it easy to measure distances as these degrees and minutes are on the sides of the map to indicate latitude. That's how all seamen in the world do when working on a map...

Okay, I understand. I'm old, I miss some things.

You have my vote Steve.....:arrgh!:

And remember - old farts are usualy those that smell best :up:


And Corsair - the explanation might lie in the fact that today even - german television shows movies with german voiceover. No "Yeehaa Jesters dead" in TopGun - nahaa "Ach Sehr Gut - Jester sind tot!"

Living right next door to them, able to take german television, i have never understood it.......well apart from the porn.

That's now five years I am living in the "inside" side of the door, so I get to understand it pretty well now. Although I spend a lot of time on the international french TV5 channel so I don't forget my original language...
My main problem in the beginning was that each region has its own dialect - germans from Hamburg don't understand germans from Munich - which is very different from what you learn in school.
Like one of my german friends told me in the beginning : The main difference between Germans and foreigners living in Germany is that foreigners speak German...:D

This was discussed in the SHIV forum, as nautical miles are designed to be used with latitude and longitude. And since the game map doesn't use "real" navigation, it's a bit of a moot point, really. That's where converting to km would be a pain, when you have a certain point to reach, using latitude and longitude, with the time equations figured in.

All Navies and Sailors measure distance their ship travels across the surface of an ocean in Nautical / Sea miles. (NOT kilometers or Statute miles.) All positions are notated in Latitudes and Longitudes (or Kriegsmarine codes during WWII). Positions were anotated after celestial fix by measuring distance along either the east or west NEAT LINE of the CHART (Latitude).

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j42/donhreed/nm.jpg

Nautical mile = 1/60 of 1° of Latitude. 1 minute of arc.

Depth is measured: in feet, fathoms, & meters.

Range to target: yards, meters, & nautical miles.

Take your pick.

Thks for the picture, that's exactly what I was trying to explain...:up:

PS : wow, love my new avatar, may be I should stop posting to keep it a while...lol