molder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> In fact that was where I became interested in
> measurement. Australian aviation has some crazy
> procedures for instance an aircraft inbound to and
> airport may be 20 nautical miles out and on
> descent from 5000 feet with a visibility of 500
> meters in fog. Dealing with 3 separate measures
> here and one of my jobs when working at country
> airports was to make sure they didn't hit another
> aircraft which may be overflying or outbound.
>

Then you're well aware how three different measures can be worked to produce a number you want and that the result may not be culturally significant. "Full fathoms five my father lies..." (to quote Shakespeare) - while five is a sacred number to the Pythagoreans, it wasn't to Shakespeare and playing with different units to make the number 5 come out to be something else (like "if you multiply pi by 5 you get 15.707 and that relates to the Boeing 707 and in 1955 the barrel roll that was part of the first test of this plane").

If you multiply and divide and play with the numbers, you can come up with all sorts of sacred numbers and relationships. I can measure the 707 in Saxon feet or Pyramid Inches and then multiply/divide/cosine/etc and come up with pi, phi, and a whole lot of other things. This doesn't mean that Boeing uses the Saxon foot or the Pyramid inch.

-- Byrd
Moderator, Hall of Ma'at