- By Jim Evans
- Entertainment
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SMART TALK by Dr. Verbos Metikulos
KNOTS PER HOUR: Reporters and others frequently commit this redundancy. Instead of factual, they're fatuous.
Many don't understand that a knot is one nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile is equal to one minute of latitude. That's 1/60 of one degree, which comes out to almost 800 feet more than a land mile, also known as a statute mile.
Therefore, a fighter jet doing 400 knots is traveling a tad over 460 miles per hour. With the metric system, we wouldn't suffer any of this confusion.
Anyway, saying knots per hour is as redundant as saying "Nice day, isn't it" in Honolulu.
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