the british nautical mile is defined as the length of a minute of arc of a meridian. Since Earth is flat at its poles, the nautical mile, in feet, is given by L=6077-31cos2Ѳ, where Ѳ is the latitude in degrees.

a) Find the latitude between 0° and 90° at which the nautical mile is 6074 ft.
b) At what latitude between 0° and 180° is the nautical mile 6108 ft.?
c) In the U.S., the nautical mile is defined everywhere as 6080.2 ft. At what latitude between 0° and 90° does this agree with the British nautical mile?

1 answer

what's the trouble? Just plug in your numbers and solve for Ѳ