Re: Radius of the Earth
On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Tony Moss wrote: > > The latest question is "How far away is the sea horizon?" Like most sundial questions this is also of imporance in navigation. How far away the horizon is at sea depends, of course, on how far above sea leval you are. If you are treading water with your eyes at seal leval your horizon will be very near your face. If you stand in the lifeboat with your eyes 6 feet above sea level the horizon is 3 miles out. Take the distance in feet from the sea surface to your eye level, multiply by 3/2 and then take the square root. This is approximately the distance in miles to the horizon. (I assume they mean statute miles--this is boiled down from Science Digest Feb 1984 p 34)
Hc
Sorry, I know I'm cheating. There's probably a celestial navigation list and this belongs there, but... Can anyone tell me a formulae I can punch into a calculator to avoid sight reduction tables and compute Hc directly? I used to have one, I think. My apologies to those of you who are only interested in sundials and not navigation (although they ARE so similar even down to the careful drawing of lines on paper that I doubt there are any offendees, anyway) jh
"in the meantime"
I just happened to be writing something and I used the phrase "in the meantime" which, in American english at least, means something like 'during the occurence of something else'. I wonder if the origin of the phrase is temporally related. The limericks are quite clever. Re the first one perhaps with careful use of Viagra the sailor could get standard time. Thanks for the responses to my earlier question about Hc. I'm trying to teach a friend minimal navigation. For a chronograph we're using GPS. Where is the largest ordinary horizontal dial? (I suppose those Indian ones may be ordinary horizontal dials, but other than them) Later, John
poetry contest
I propose the following rules for the poetry contest: 1. The person awarding the prize is the sole judge. He can decide when and to whom to award the prize using any criteria he pleases. (originality and sundial suitability seem reasonable) 2. Multiple entries are permitted. If number 2 above is acceptable then the following are contest entries. I am a sundial. I always tell the right time. I say it is NOW! Tell me, my sundial, my place in the universe. Who cares about time? Or we could form a commitee to consider the feasibility of forming a commitee to study the rule issue further ;) John
patent on a sundial
Fellow sundial enthusiasts, Is it worth even considering getting a patent on a sundial? I imagine some of you have done so. Would you do it again? John
Re: patent on a sundial
On Sun, 30 Aug 1998, Richard Pauli wrote: > John, > > No or maybe. The business case is weak, but the intellectual pride is > great. US Patent costs are absurd. And I don't even know what maintainance Thank you all for your input. I can't say that I'm surprised at the general lack of enthusiasm for the notion of getting a patent. I do think my design is unique enough to get the patent but I doubt it would do me any good. I guess if an idea was really worth patenting then it woyuld be worth stealing too, as evidenced by all the counterfeit levi's and other name brand products. I'll check into that book. Thanks. Maybe I need one of those 2 year deals. If I had a dollar for everybody who told me I'd never make any money on my sundial design I'd probably have more money than I'll ever make on my sundial... yet I persevere. I don't know about the rest of the world (do the shepherd's really still use cylinder dials?) but here in the USA gnomonics is not exactly a mainstream activity. I wonder who has the record in terms of number of sundials sold. Probably some book with a pop up sundial like 'The Earth is a Sundial' (in Japan, 'Anno's Sundial') Will there be any activities at the convention in Seattle that would be open to non-registered people who just happened to drop by? John
finding latitude
Greetings, I made a little web page with links to places to find your latitude. There are only two or three links there. (http://www.cyberspace.org/~jh/lati.html) It was not a very major effort. As it turns out that page is getting bunches of traffic although I've never publicized it. Someone must have linked to it so there is a demand for such a compilation of resources, apparently. So I figure I should expand it. If you know of a web site that allows one to find their latitude or of any other way to find the latitude of a place please post it here or email me. If you have one of those new cars that come with GPS please post the instruction for extracting the latitude. Thanks, John
Re: Marble for sundials
On Wed, 25 Nov 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > 1. Never choose a boulder because you don't know what is inside. It may > contain unseen giant flaws, strange colors, who knows what. I imagine a polar dial made out of a boulder (not marble), say 4 or 5 feet tall, all natural except at the top which is carved (or machined) to a flat surface, parallel to our earth's axis, with either a central gnomon or a pair of gnomons on the sides, also carved out of the rock, of course. I think that would be a very nice design for a public monumental dial. The justaposition of the natural boulder and the polished surfaces at the top would be very satisfying, don't you think? jh
