Do we really need West and South when we can use negative North and negative East?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 38 points 11 months ago (11 children)

Better idea! What if we use 0 for North and then divide the circle around by exactly 360 points? That way we don't need NSEW, we have 0, 90, 180, 270!

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 11 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (10 children)

    Ah... I love airplanes... To be clear, the issue with this is that magnetic 0 is not the same as true 0. There's a slight offset that can cause issues. So why not have like... True 0 and magnetic 0. T0 and m0?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Fun fact... there is an ICAO effort to "get rid" of magnetic headings for runway numbers. I listened to a presentation they did last year, and as much as I went into it thinking it wasn't needed, I was a convert listening to them.

    Btw, magnetic variation is pretty significant in some places. It's 13 degrees where I am.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    What's the new one? I must have missed the presentation. Probably because I wasn't invited.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    I don't remember where I watched the presentation. I think it might have been one of Brian Schiff's videos, but I don't remember. Here's a link to it I found online. https://www2023.icao.int/safety/OPS/OPS-Section/Pages/Truenorth.aspx

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    I suppose it makes sense but it feels wrong. I'm so used to having and using magnetic but that isn't a reason to continue doing less efficient things.

    The redundancy aspect is there as when systems would fail (GPS for true), the magnetic redundancy would still come into okay and still work enough to get by.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    Why not?

    Because what happens when your referent changes? Which direction is Mars from Earth? We obviously need a single navigational system that works anywhere in the universe.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Easy! Assuming the earth is the center of the universe, coordinates are 360,360

    +- the current position of the Earth in the solar system +- the current position of the solar system in the Milky Way. In the Local Cluster, in the Local Group, in the Virgo Supercluster, in the Local Mesh

    In order to return, we just go that way:

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments