Frank Evans wrote: From: "Frank Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sundial" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 9:19 AM Subject: east and west, an afterthought
> Greetings fellow dialists, > I showed the east west problem of the Belfast Muslims to an old sea > captain acquaintance of mine (we were shipmates sixty years ago) and > although he did not offer a solution he came up with the following: > > Belfast to Mecca > Rhumb line: 133.2 deg true, 2913.5 nautical miles > Great circle: 115.1 deg true, 2874.9 nautical miles. > > This raises the question for the faithful, when facing Mecca should one > use the rhumb line or the great circle direction? Not much of a problem > at the time of the Prophet but perhaps more important now! > Frank 55N 1W > > In my view the rhumb line is merely an aid to navigation performed by reference to a bearing. Muslims are not trying to navigate to Mecca, but to face it, I believe. The rhumb line doesn't face the destination. Although navigation has for centuries been performed by using the bearing relative to the North Pole, this is surely now obsoleted by the availability of computers that can calculate the great circle route, so I would argue that the rhumb line is itself virtually obsolete. Chris Lusby Taylor 51.4N, 1.3W -
