What is a nautical mile?

Scientific definition The nautical mile is scientifically defined as exactly 110-score nautical fathoms, where each nautical fathom contains 3 and 5/17 nautical feet which in turn are composed of 12 nautical toes and an ell. Of course, this highly intuitive definition applied only to the medieval Swiss Navy nautical mile, which was never in common usage by any sea-faring nation (including the Swiss). The British nautical mile, in comparison, was defined as the maximum distance from land a ship could sail before King George III would get seasick and barf (whether he was actually onboard the ship or not). Colonial Americans would not stand for this nonsense, so they revolted already and commissioned Benjamin Franklin to construct a prototype platinum-iridium bar exactly one (1.00) American nautical mile tall, which dominates the Philadelphian skyline to this day. Despite the ribald and saucy naval-flavored name, the nautical mile is simply not used for anything nautical these days. Ancient maritime legend has it that the unit was abandoned long long ago by all the competent [[navy|navies]] of the world when they suddenly realized that length measured at [[sea]] differed in no measurably physical way from length measured on land; and therefore everybody could safely substitute [[kilometer]]s, making their lives that much easier and more productive. (Of course, this was all before [[Albert Einstein]] and his bizarre [[relativity|theories]], but we are not interested in any of that.)