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For Alex,

Yes there is something similar in the West....Canadian Gunners use the mil.
17.7 mils to the degree , if my memory of Arty training 50 years ago is
correct.

Clyde
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alexandre E Eremenko" 
To: 
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 3:07 PM
Subject: Comments on the units


> Perhaps this does not fit exactly in
> the list scope but I will comment a bit about this funny subject
> of the units.
>
> On Fri, 7 Apr 2006, George Huxtable wrote:
>
> > | We think of the metric system being firmly established in the world,
but
> > | only a part of it -- measurement of distance and temperature -- is
> > | universal.
>
> I am surprised with this statement.
> If you subtract the US, from the rest of the world,
> the metric system if firmly established in EVERYTHING
> except time/angular measures.
>
> Of course there is nothing good or natural about base 10 at all.
> Bases 8 and 12 are much more convenient for many purposes.
> I know of one attempt of transfer to base 8
> (Charles XII of Sweden tried to introduce it as a general standard.
> But he died young (and defeated)).
>
> > Grads (100, not 90, to the right-angle) still appear on some French
maps.
>
> In Soviet artillery, at least when I served for a brief period in 1975,
> the angle measurement unit was called simply "one division".
> There were 6000 divisions in the full circle.
> The reason for this was that 6 is a reasonable approximation to 2pi.
> Thus an object of size 1 meter is seen at the distance of 1 kilometer
> under the angle of 1 division, approximately.
> So if you see a tank whose height is 3 meters under the angle
> of 2 divisions, the distance is (3/2) times 1000=1500 meters,
> very simple for quick calculation in your head:-)
> But the precision instruments were also graded in "divisions"
> to avoid confusion.
>
> Confusion however occured in the interaction with
> our aviation where the angles were naturally measured in degrees...
> or with the navy where the distances were measured in cables
> and miles but the angles still in degrees:-)
>
> Grades were also used somewhere in the military but I don't remember
> where:-)
>
> But speaking seriously, probably one reason why the system based
> on 60 still holds is that 6 is close to 2pi. Closer than 10 anyway:-)
>
> Is there anything similar to the Soviet "division" in the West?
>
> Alex.

   

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