One nautical mile is approximately how many kilometers?

One nautical mile is approximately how many kilometers?

• A. 1.852 kilometers
• B. 0.621 kilometers
• C. 2.000 kilometers
• D. 3.000 kilometers

Answer: (A)

A nautical mile is tied to Earth's geometry: it is defined as one minute of latitude along a meridian. Since there are 60 minutes in a degree and 360 degrees around the globe, there are 21,600 nautical miles in a full circle. The Earth's circumference is about 40,075 kilometers, so each nautical mile is 40,075 km / 21,600 ≈ 1.852 kilometers. Therefore, one nautical mile equals approximately 1.852 kilometers. The other values don’t fit this standard conversion: 0.621 kilometers is far smaller (about 0.335 NM), and 2.000 or 3.000 kilometers are noticeably larger than 1.852 km.

A nautical mile is tied to Earth's geometry: it is defined as one minute of latitude along a meridian. Since there are 60 minutes in a degree and 360 degrees around the globe, there are 21,600 nautical miles in a full circle. The Earth's circumference is about 40,075 kilometers, so each nautical mile is 40,075 km / 21,600 ≈ 1.852 kilometers. Therefore, one nautical mile equals approximately 1.852 kilometers.

The other values don’t fit this standard conversion: 0.621 kilometers is far smaller (about 0.335 NM), and 2.000 or 3.000 kilometers are noticeably larger than 1.852 km.