Thread: Distances of Interest

Originally Posted by ravells

You know, Sid James would have loved your last post

He would (im having another of those dense moments it seems)

I came across the term from a puzzle so given that were into full on puzzle mode this month - have a go at it if you dare...

http://stuhasic.com/enigma/enigm023.htm

(See 7 across or 1 down !)

Oh and let me tell you this. a) Its a corker, and b) its bleedin difficult - its no namby pamby fill in the blanks sudoku type puzzle.

I'm printing this one out.

Here guys... try this little program... highly useful

Hey! We use that at work! All the engineers and field service guys have that. They have to do a LOT of conversions as we deal with metric constantly and also do fluid dynamics and such. I can attest to that being a great tool.

There's also an 'ell'. From here

ELL. A measure of length. In old English the word signifies arm, which sense it still retains in the word elbow. Nature has no standard of measure. The cubit, the ell, the span, palm, hand, finger, (being taken from the individual who uses them) varies. So of the foot, pace, mile, or mille passuum. See Report on Weights and Measures, by the Secretary of State of the United. States, Feb. 22, 1821; Fathom.

Hm... "Nature has no standard of measure." But the metric system is based off the wavelength of light emitted by krypton atoms so that part of the statement isn't quite true though, we can't perceive it with our own senses so it that regard it is true.

Originally Posted by RPMiller

Hm... "Nature has no standard of measure." But the metric system is based off the wavelength of light emitted by krypton atoms so that part of the statement isn't quite true though, we can't perceive it with our own senses so it that regard it is true.

The meter was orginally defined as one ten-millionth the distance from pole to pole. A completely arbitrary number based on one planet's diameter and a number system influenced by the fact that we happen to have 10 convenient counting digits. Plus it keeps changing. http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/meter.html has information on the history of the meter. Anyhow, my point was that the meter is based on arbitrary decisions based on one subgroup of a random species on a random planet in a random star system in a random galaxy. Not what I would pick for a natural standard of measurement.

The closest thing that seems to be a "natural" measure of distance is the Planck length ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_length ), which is derived from some of the fundamental constants of our universe. It's not a terribly convenient distance for normal use, though.

I think perhaps that I should get more sleep so that I'll be in a better humor.

See, now your just being nit picky...

600 Miles
(I posted this to the world building section but it applies equally here. When we throw around numbers it helps to have mental images to pin them on.)


Washington DC to New York City is, according to google, 229 miles by highway. As the crow flies it might be roughly 200 miles. 1/3rd of 600 mls


Washington to Quebec City is likely about 600 miles as the crow flies.

London England to Berlin Germany is 684 miles by highway - 583 miles as the crow flies.

The isle of Britain is less than 600 miles nth-sth (548 ml. by my inaccurate google earthing.)


600 by 600 miles - 360,000 sq ml.

The land area of Germany is only 216,998 miles.
The land area of Britain (Scotland, England, Nth Ireland) is 152,112 miles