>Terry, > >My Webster bears you out on the definition of the mil. But where in the >world did 1/6400 come from? Like Joe Reid I had thought that the >artilleryman's mil was the milliradian. That would be the angle subtended >by 1 meter at a distance of 1 kilometer -- easily understood and very >practical. > >Bruce Barrow > >----- Original Message ----- >From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002 2:42 PM >Subject: [USMA:20454] Re: The gon; Canadian metric hybrids > > >> > Of Joseph B. Reid >> > I should have written "The US artillery uses the milliradian for >> > correcting >> > their fire". >> >> Not quite. All Nato forces use a unit called the 'mil' for fire >> correction. There are 6400 mils in a circle. >> >> -- >> Terry Simpson
I think I see the point. A right angle in milliradians is 500 � = 1570.79... and a complete circle is 2000 � = 6283.18,,, By shrinking the milliradian by less than 2% we get the mil which suits the artillery requirement and is useful for genral surveying, because the right angle becomes 1600 mil and the full circle becomes 6400 mil. Joseph B.Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
