NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: A simple three-body fix puzzle
From: Peter Hakel
Date: 2010 Dec 10, 18:35 -0800
From: Herbert Prinz <666@poorherbert.org>
To: NavList@fer3.com
Sent: Fri, December 10, 2010 1:39:29 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: A simple three-body fix puzzle
Peter,
I was aware of these calculus free proofs. But none was given by Antoine.
By the way, calculus is not only unnecessary in this case, it is also unnecessary in the general case. Completion of the square always works. This is how Lemoine did it in his paper. (I don't have the reference handy.). In Mystic It took me more than half an hour on the blackboard to go through it and we all needed a beer afterward. The point of the exercise was to proof that even Bowditch's cook could have understood why the MPP is where it is.
Herbert Prinz
From: Peter Hakel
Date: 2010 Dec 10, 18:35 -0800
Hi Herbert,
These non-calculus proofs have an additional value in the context of NavList, I think. I see bypassing calculus as similar to doing CelNav instead of just using GPS. I like the "spiritual symmetry" that such proofs provide to the NavList universe. :-)
Peter Hakel
These non-calculus proofs have an additional value in the context of NavList, I think. I see bypassing calculus as similar to doing CelNav instead of just using GPS. I like the "spiritual symmetry" that such proofs provide to the NavList universe. :-)
Peter Hakel
From: Herbert Prinz <666@poorherbert.org>
To: NavList@fer3.com
Sent: Fri, December 10, 2010 1:39:29 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: A simple three-body fix puzzle
Peter,
I was aware of these calculus free proofs. But none was given by Antoine.
By the way, calculus is not only unnecessary in this case, it is also unnecessary in the general case. Completion of the square always works. This is how Lemoine did it in his paper. (I don't have the reference handy.). In Mystic It took me more than half an hour on the blackboard to go through it and we all needed a beer afterward. The point of the exercise was to proof that even Bowditch's cook could have understood why the MPP is where it is.
Herbert Prinz