On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 02:07:01PM -0500, [email protected] wrote:
>
>
> As for the cam: for inputting compass variation a cam about the size of
> kiwi fruit was used. The cam rotated around it's shaft axis for longitide
> and the cam follower moved parellel with the cam's shaft for latitude. The
> distance from the cam's shaft to the follower (radius of the cam) varied to
> read off variation.
Yep; same kind of gadget. I guess most people know, on some abstract
level, that e.g. a ball bearing is just a geometrical figure made real
by metallurgy - but watching that cam in operation really brings that
kind of thing home. It gave me a lot of pleasure, watching this chunk of
human knowledge and ingenuity made solid by skill and craft going
through its evolutions. It reminded me that we are indeed amazing
critters, capable of great things.
Ben
--
OKOPNIK CONSULTING
Custom Computing Solutions For Your Business
Expert-led Training | Dynamic, vital websites | Custom programming
443-250-7895 http://okopnik.com http://twitter.com/okopnik
_______________________________________________
Liveaboard mailing list
[email protected]
To adjust your membership settings over the web
http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard
To subscribe send an email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/
To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
The Mailman Users Guide can be found here
http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
