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Smart TalkSmart TalkSMART TALK
By Dr. Winton "Windy" Prolix

KNOTS PER HOUR:  Being an avid sailor, I abhor this redundancy.  Of course, the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired is a long way from large bodies of water, but around Underbelly, Texas, we see lots of aircraft, and pilots measure their speed the same way.

Poorly educated reporters and others may say knots per hour pretending to nautical knowledge, but instead of being factual, they appear fatuous.  They don't understand that a knot is one nautical mile per hour. 

A nautical mile is one minute of latitude, or 1/60 of one degree of a circle around the earth.  That comes out to almost 800 feet more than a statute mile, which adds up.  Statute miles, by the way, are the miles on an American car's odometer, and were standardized by a whole different method.

A discussion like this makes the metric system look better every kilometer.  Just one simple system, no equivalents to learn.

Anyway, a jet fighter passing over the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired at 400 knots is doing a tad over 460 miles per hour.  And saying knots per hour is as redundant as saying rate of speed.

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