Patrick, PMFJI. When designing a EOT plaque a few years ago. I struggled with this question. In the end I chose the "dial fast/dial slow" labeling. Here is my reasoning.
If I gave you a nice looking but somewhat erraticatic watch (the dial), and said, "It works good but its 10 minutes fast". You would have no problem making the mental calculation to get the correct time. You might has some difficulty if I said, "Everyone else's watch is 10 minutes slow." ++ron -----Original Message----- From: Patrick Powers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: John Hall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; sundial <sundial@rrz.uni-koeln.de> Date: Friday, September 24, 1999 1:12 AM Subject: Equation of Time Graph wrong way up Down Under ? >This is a common problem. Historically there have been two ways of >assigning the positive and negative signs to the Equation of Time. It all >depends on the way you think of the difference of the two entities that >give rise to the EoT. > > I think (but am not entirely sure) that navigationalists think of it one >way and astonomers the other. Therefore it all depends which book/almanack >you choose as to which way it is presented. That is why most dialling >tables are marked with 'watch faster'/ 'watch slower' or 'dial fast'/ 'dial >slow' in order to be sure about the difference. > >Patrick > > > >
