At 02:30 PM 4/24/01 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>it appears that everyone has assumed that the miles are statute miles. what
>if the distances are in nautical miles??
To account for just such a possibility, the Excel solution I previously
mentioned allows one to vary the units. When I do that, the solution
agrees with the usual miles (5280 feet per mile where 39.37/12 feet make a
meter) to within 3 parts per million.
If one does not vary the units, but interprets them as nautical miles, the
inconsistencies among the measurements are enormous (every point on the
earth is many hundreds of miles off for most of the measurements). It
looks like changing the altitude of the solution does not help much,
either, in case you were thinking in another dimension.
At 01:46 PM 4/24/01 -0400, John Haynes wrote:
>Once again, guys...it is a present tense hypothetical. The sign is WHERE
>YOU ARE, the distances on the sign have NO meaning.
The original question was
"Say you come upon a sign that says the following:
... <six distances provided> ...
How would you determine where the sign is located?"
Most of us take "come upon" to mean "physically next to" and we take "is
located" to mean with reference to a fixed known datum, in which case--if
we are to trust the sign at all--the distances are very meaningful. You
can correctly answer, "the sign is right here," but that's a specious
response. Waddya tryin' ta do, spoil da party?
--Bill
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