NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Calculator v. Slide Rule for Ex-Meridian Correction
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2016 Jan 3, 11:25 -0500
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2016 Jan 3, 11:25 -0500
Hello Alex
Glad to see you!
There has been some discussion of performing the lunar distance computation with a slide rule. What is your estimate of the number of significant digits for the lunar distance computation?
Brad
On Jan 2, 2016 4:42 PM, "Alexandre Eremenko" <NoReply_Eremenko@fer3.com> wrote:
This kind of calculation requires few significant digits, and thus can be done with a slide rule. You can also time how much it takes by hand with pencil, as it was done in the old times, without a calculator and without a slide rule. However the main calculation which we do in CelNav, solving a spherical triangle, requires 5-6 digits, and this is not possible with a slide rule. Perhaps for this reason a slide rule is not in the list of standard equipment for a celestial navigator.
