Knot (The Knot)

A knot, in the context of a ship or maritime navigation, is a unit of speed used to measure how fast a vessel is moving through the water. One knot equals one nautical mile per hour, where a nautical mile is approximately 1.1508 miles or 1.852 kilometers. This measurement originated from sailors using a device called a chip log, which involved a rope with knots tied at regular intervals; by counting how many knots passed through their hands in a specific time, navigators gauged their speed.