John P. Cromwell attack technique on order

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by doulos05

3 Minutes for Imperial, 3m15s for Metric. It works because...

If you wanted to count the herd by counting the legs and dividing by 4, you could measure 3 minutes (we'll call that d), multipy that by 20 (to get yards/hour) and divide that by 2000(to get knots).
Knots = (d*20)/2000.
Of course, if you're a good mathematician, you say "Wait, we can simplify that!" It simplifies to Knots = d/100.

I'm not familiar with the metric knot, so I can't show you exactly why 3m15s works. But it's the same principle at work.

There is no metric knot. Those crazy Europeans, knowing the imperial system is so superior, cannot resist using the knot, because like all imperial measurements it actually relates to something useful (in this case, the circumference of the earth and the number of nautical miles (another more useful imperial unit!) in of one degree of latitude). Kilometers per hour, on the other hand, is so unusually useless, even for a metric unit(!), that they have discarded it in favor of something that actually works for navigation. Imagine that! Using the knot is their one consession to sanity.:rotfl:

3:15 works for metric because the yard is 36" long, the meter is 39.37". It is longer, so you need a longer time to measure it. 3:00/36 =3:15/39.37.