Re: How did the nautical speed measurement 'knots' originate?

In the old days, there weren't electronic speedometers. So every so often,
to get a handle on the ship's speed, a sailor would throw a float overboard.
The float was attached to a piece of rope with knots tied in it; the knots
were a certain distance apart (I don't know the distance, sorry!)

The sailor counted the number of knots that slipped through his hands in
a fixed period of time, and reported the speed of the ship in "knots."

For details, you may want to try a history of sailing ships.

                                     Dan Berger
                                     MadSci Administrator