Yeah, the game isn't perfect, but it's darn good. It's actually kind of fun to figure out the wrinkles that didn't get covered.
In the imperial system, the speed in knots is the number of hundred yards traveled in three minutes. Then it works just like measuring the number of hundred meters in three minutes fifteen seconds. Since the meter is longer than the yard, the time is extended to make it an accurate measurement.
Here's how you figure out why the number of hundred yards in three minutes works. One nautical mile is 2000 yards. If you travel 2000 yards in one hour, your speed is one knot. 2000 yards in 60 minutes is 200 yards in 6 minutes. Divide both by two and that is 100 yards in 3 minutes. If you go 200 yards in that 3 minutes you are going 2 knots. 750 yards is 7½ knots. Make sense?
It's much harder to derive with meters and knots... It's enough to know that the meter is longer than a yard so you have to use a proportionally longer time.
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