NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Norm Goldblatt
Date: 2013 Feb 7, 16:46 -0800
Wonderful response. Humorous AND informative.
The scale on my Otis-King is 'clean' off. Never thought about the consequence of stretching the scale. Thought it would just stretch back to normal. You're right-easiest would be to purchase another Otis King. Joined the Oughtred Society and have found Otis-Kings weren't as rare as I had thought, among the aficionados. I'll get one that's intact.
As for the string question, you are correct. It's easiest to use Newton's invention, Calculus. C=2piR or R=C/2pi. Taking the derivative of both sides,
dR/dC = 1/2pi where dR and dC are teeny tiny changes in both. So, dR is the answer, 1/2pi. =0.159154943.
But we missed the forest for the trees. Isn't it extraordinary that a 1 inch change in the length of a string 24,000 miles long will raise it 1/6 of an inch. It would simply fall off the Earth. I never forgot that problem. I still marvel at it.
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