Surveying MCQ Questions & Answers | Civil Engineering

The nautical mile is a unit of measurement used in navigation and is defined as one minute of latitude along any meridian. Here's the breakdown:

- 1 nautical mile (NM) = 1 minute of latitude
- 1 minute of latitude is equal to 1/60th of a degree of latitude
- 1 degree of latitude is approximately 111.12 kilometers or 69.05 miles

So, a nautical mile is approximately 1.852 kilometers or 1.15078 miles.

This unit is particularly useful in navigation because it provides a consistent measure of distance that takes into account the Earth's curvature. It allows navigators to calculate distances accurately while accounting for the variations in the size of a degree of latitude at different locations on the Earth's surface.

Therefore, the correct answer is Option A: 1 minute of latitude.