Nautical Miles vs Kilometres

[PapaCharlie]

Hello to all the salty dogs,

Does anybody know if there is a mod that changes the metric reading on the navigation map into (nautical) miles? Or did I miss an option in SHIII where you can switch between metric and imperial?
The speed of the ships is always given in knots, but you have to measures distances on the map in kilometres. That's not logical, is it?
So if anybody knows a mod or a solution, please let me know.

Thanks...
and happy hunting

Papa Charlie

[Corsair]

That's one odd thing of the game... Solution is having a pocket calculator at hand. Nautical miles are not imho a part of the imperial system.

PS : forgot : Welcome to Subsim !

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by PapaCharlie

Hello to all the salty dogs,

Does anybody know if there is a mod that changes the metric reading on the navigation map into (nautical) miles? Or did I miss an option in SHIII where you can switch between metric and imperial?
The speed of the ships is always given in knots, but you have to measures distances on the map in kilometres. That's not logical, is it?
So if anybody knows a mod or a solution, please let me know.

Thanks...
and happy hunting

Papa Charlie

I really don't think you need that level of detail...I'm not aware of anyone else who knows of such an option
Welcome aboard kaleun and enjoy the ride

[iwan_m]

I am mariner on merchant navy (german company), and have finished Faculty of Maritime Studies,but have to say that PapaCharlie is right. If speed of ship or sub is 10 knots that means that in 1 hour that ship or sub will pass 10 nautical miles(and charts in SHIII are all in m-km). And in my bussines i have never seen a chart in meters or kilometers so....

[Corsair]

Totally agree with you, but we all have to live with it... Just makes you work on a little math sometimes.

PS : this makes the use of the nomograph on the map handy...

[peterloo]

Yes, that is weird for SH3 to use "knot" in speed but km, meter in length measurement

Just remember it, 1 knot = 1 mile / hour = 1.6 km/h

I hope SH4 will have a better unit system

[Subwolf]

Peterloo, I think you are mixing this with a road mile which is 1,6 km. A nautical mile is 1,852 km. A ship doing 10 knots will cover 10 nautical miles in an hour which is 18,52 km.

[Pablo]

Hi!

I suspect the SH3 developers used the metric system for measurement since that is the standard measure used by landlubbers worldwide - and let's face it, there are many more people who use the metric system for distance measurement than there are using nautical miles. Unfortunately, this leads to pretty complex conversions best helped by the use of a nomograph.

The basic problem is that a "nautical mile' (by definition) is an angular measure: the length of a line spanning one minute of one degree of arc on the earth's surface. This would be great if the earth were a perfect sphere, but it's not: it is an "oblate spheroid" so the "real" length is shorter at the North and South Pole than it is at the equator.

To avoid mass confusion, the length of a nautical mile was standardized at 1852 km, which is the length of a nautical mile about half-way between the Poles and the Equator.

This yields the following conversions:

1 nautical mile = 1.852 km = approx. 1.15 statute miles

Pablo

[snitzel]

I'd rather have a mod that gets rid of knots/miles and shows the speeds in km/h and m/s

In fact I think they should have used two rulers. For large scale maps, use nautical miles to make it easy to plot convoys. For zoomed in maps, use kilometres (or optionally miles/yards for those backwards people ) to make it easier to calculate torpedo travel times etc for really-manual-shots.

In all books I have read, the crew speaks about ships "two miles" or "four kilometres" away, but when they start to shoot at it, they say "range 2000m" or "range 3500 yards". Makes sense, doesn't it?

[_Seth_]

Originally Posted by Subwolf

Peterloo, I think you are mixing this with a road mile which is 1,6 km. A nautical mile is 1,852 km. A ship doing 10 knots will cover 10 nautical miles in an hour which is 18,52 km.

i always play SHIII with a calculator, to convert when needed. @ subwolf: Do you think its possible to use the computer (flight navigation equipment /whizz wheel) in SHIII? (I have the NCR01- CRP-1 Flight Computer)

Edit: And welcome, PapaCharlie!!

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by Pablo

Hi!

I suspect the SH3 developers used the metric system for measurement since that is the standard measure used by landlubbers worldwide - and let's face it, there are many more people who use the metric system for distance measurement than there are using nautical miles. Unfortunately, this leads to pretty complex conversions best helped by the use of a nomograph.

The basic problem is that a "nautical mile' (by definition) is an angular measure: the length of a line spanning one minute of one degree of arc on the earth's surface. This would be great if the earth were a perfect sphere, but it's not: it is an "oblate spheroid" so the "real" length is shorter at the North and South Pole than it is at the equator.

To avoid mass confusion, the length of a nautical mile was standardized at 1852 km, which is the length of a nautical mile about half-way between the Poles and the Equator.

This yields the following conversions:

1 nautical mile = 1.852 km = approx. 1.15 statute miles

Pablo

I think you'll find it was actually the Kriegsmarine that use the metric measurement as standard for it's maps so that they could plan combined ops with the Luftwaffe and the army who both used km and km/h as standards. The Kreigsmarine kpet to knots as this was the worldwide standard for measuring ship speed, but all their maps were in km.

[PapaCharlie]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the responds. I was a merchant officer myself, so I know about the definition of a nautical mile, statue mile and stuff (and sure, the NM does not belong to the imperial system). If you use miles or kilometres, the problem of the earth being a sphere remains the same. It all depends of the charts you use.
I concider the map in SHIII a Mercator projection. You only get into trouble with that chart if you cross the ocean from east to west or vice-versa. Then a straight line from A to B is not the shortest way.
I was just wondering if there was a mod for it. Some of you are able to build mods, why hasn't anybody thought of a mod for converting miles into kilometres or the other way round? I cannot believe that in navigation on board a U-boat, the crew worked with knots as unit for speed and kilometres as unit of distance. That is asking for trouble and mistakes.
By the way, did you know that the Dutch and Germans (and Svcandinavians perhaps) also used a Geographical Mile or German mile, being 4 nautical miles? I know the used it in the age of square rigged sailing. Don't know if it was still in use in WOII. For those who are intrested, here is a link to a site to convert metric to imperial or nautical measurements:
http://www.squarerigged.nl/papa/dimen/conv.htm

But nevertheless, it's a great game. I am on my way home now, with my conningtower severely damaged. To late diving for a plane spotted. Damn planes!!


We'll meet again, dont know where, don't know when...

Papa Charlie

[_Seth_]

Wow, PapaCharlie! Excellent site, mate! I didnt know about that German mile, btw.. Always good to learn something new, mate!!

[Subwolf]

Originally Posted by _Seth_

i always play SHIII with a calculator, to convert when needed. @ subwolf: Do you think its possible to use the computer (flight navigation equipment /whizz wheel) in SHIII? (I have the NCR01- CRP-1 Flight Computer)

Well the CRP-1 does not exactly cover a ship's scales, but as you probably know you can convert nm-km with it.

[_Seth_]

Originally Posted by Subwolf

Well the CRP-1 does not exactly cover a ship's scales, but as you probably know you can convert nm-km with it.

Thanx, mate! I'll give this a try!