Steve, No it is not the same. The % scale is designed to convert a measured horizontal distance to a calculated height. It is the tangent of the angle measured. When you use the rangefinder you are not measuring the horizontal distance to the tree but the direct distance from your eye to the measuring point. That is the hypotenuse of a right triangle. You need to use the sin function to convert the measured distance to a height above level of the measurement. So the % scale has no direct relationship to what you are measuring.
Ed Join me in the Eastern Native Tree Society at http://www.nativetreesociety.org and in the Primal Forests - Ancient Trees Community at: http://primalforests.ning.com/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Steve G To: ENTSTrees Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 10:35 PM Subject: [ENTS] Measurement methodology question ENTS I've just acquired a clinometer with both degree and percent scales. I understand the sine method of measuring with clinometer and laser rangefinder(at least I think I understand). Can I simplify an accurate measurement by taking rangefinder distance times % slope of clinometer, without translating a degree reading to a sine value? Intuitively it seems it should get to get to the same figure from different directions.--is this correct? Steve --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
