At the equator, one degree of latitude or longitude is the equivalent of 60 nautical miles, and one minute of latitude or longitude is the equivalent of one nautical mile. Ships and airplanes have used latitude and longitude to give their positions for hundreds of years, and the concept continues today with GPS navigation. When dividing Earth's circumference in feet by 360 degrees and again by 60 for the number of minutes, one nautical mile is found to be the equivalent of 6076 feet.
The Statute Mile as is used in North America and in the United Kingdom was defined by an act of Parliament in 1592 as measuring 1760 yards or 5280 feet. This system has been passed down through the ages since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and remains to this day.
Airlines and other organizations connected with air travel usually publish air distances in air miles or, more correctly, in nautical miles. In aviation and marine navigation, the distance between two distant points is a straight line "as the crow flies" between them. This is called a Great Circle, and its distance is calculated from the difference between the latitude and longitude of the two points. To understand this distance better, the average layman, who knows little about
nautical miles, must convert to a medium he understands.
Since one nautical mile is equal to 6076 and one statute mile measures 5280 feet, the conversion factor between the two is 1.15 or 0.87, depending on which way you are converting. As an example, say that the distance between points A and B is 5,000 nautical miles. This figure has to be multiplied by a conversion factor of 1.15 , giving an answer of 5,750 statute miles. This factor will work for you for any distance between two points so long as the distance you are given is in air or nautical miles.
