It may surprise folks to find that the US National Flag is set to only a
nominal ratio of length (fly) to width (hoist), namely 1.9:1.
http://flagcode.us/US_Flag_Dimensions/
http://www.cvsflags.com/gspecus.cfm
Commercial realizations of that in various sizes depart from that
nominal ratio considerably, e.g., 4 ft by 6 ft (fly to hoist = 1.5:1).
http://www.content4reprint.com/home/accessories/what-are-the-8-common-flag-sizes.htm
The federal government defines several flag sizes and the military
branches do also. See
http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/UniformedServices/Flags/US_Flags.aspx
and
http://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/pdf/r840_10.pdf (see PDF page 12)
Note that the dimension ratios of the flags listed in the latter more
closely represent commercial realizations than they do US Flag Code ratios.
A handy but obscure rule of thumb is that the length or diagonal size of
a flag ought to be somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 the height of the pole
on which it hoisted. The link above provides a table of suggested value
pairs.
Jim
On 2013-06-05 04:31, Martin Vlietstra wrote:
The ratio 10:14 (or rather 5:7) differs from sqrt(2) by a factor of 1.02%
Other approximations are
·17:12 (deviates from sqrt(2) by 0.17%
·99:70 (deviates from sqrt(2) by 0.0051%)
It really depends on how accurate you want to go and the practicalities
of keeping to the required accuracy. I do not think that in the real
world it is practical to define a flag as having sides in the ratio
99:70, though 17:12 seems OK.
*From:*Henschel Mark [mailto:mw-hensch...@neiu.edu]
*Sent:* 05 June 2013 02:19
*To:* vliets...@btinternet.com
*Cc:* U.S. Metric Association
*Subject:* Re: [USMA:52864] RE: Metric Flag
Not exactly.
Metric paper is the ratio of one to the square root of two, or one to
radical two (1:1.414...)
I suppose 7:10 would work as an approximation.
IF you like ratios, explore the Renard series of preferred numbers.
Louis Sokol did a lot of work on this topic and wrote some interesting
papers about Renard numbers.
Mark
----- Original Message -----
From: Martin Vlietstra <vliets...@btinternet.com
<mailto:vliets...@btinternet.com>>
Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2013 6:03 am
Subject: [USMA:52864] RE: Metric Flag
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu
<mailto:usma@colostate.edu>>
> And a flag ratio of 7:10 - the ratio of A4 paper?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-u...@colostate.edu <mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu>
[mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu]
> On Behalf
> Of Pierre Abbat
> Sent: 04 June 2013 10:31
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:52862] RE: Metric Flag
>
> On Tuesday, June 04, 2013 07:59:20 Martin Vlietstra wrote:
> > I know that some flags do have text - this seems to have been
> a trends
> > in the 19th century. Historically the flag was an emblem
> that was
> > recognisable without text.
>
> How about the quarter meridian divided into ten equal parts?
>
> Pierre
> --
> li ze te'a ci vu'u ci bi'e te'a mu du
> li ci su'i ze te'a mu bi'e vu'u ci
>
>
