Next message: Dan Allen: "Re: Abbreviation of Nautical Mile"
An interesting question came up the other day as we were editing a course
on Electronic Charting. What is the accepted abbreviation of "nautical
mile"? We need a standard that can be applied across all Canadian Power
and Sail Squadron courses.
I did some searching and came up with the following, to start the
discussion:
- Bureau International des Poids et Mesures notes that there is no accepted
symbol, though all agree on the distance measured (1852 metres)
- neither the Canadian Metric Practice Guide nor the CSA publication
International System of Units have an abbreviation in their tables
- Wikipedia (the online encyclopedia) suggests that "nm" is preferred,
especially in aeronautics
- Canadian Hydrographic Service uses "M" in its Abbreviations
- The NOAA Chart 1 (Abbreviations) lists all of "M", "Mi", "NM" and "N M"
for "nautical mile(s)"
- Nav Canada, the agency responsible for air traffic control in Canada,
uses "NM"
- Bowditch (1995) gives both "n.mi." and "NM" in Abbreviations and Acronyms
So, what does the group think? What is USPS usage? What is Navy usage?
Please reply either to the list or to me privately.
Thanks.
John Kabel
London, Ontario
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