Do we really need West and South when we can use negative North and negative East?

  • sznowicki@lemmy.world
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    5 天前

    Better idea! What if we use 0 for North and then divide the circle around by exactly 360 points? That way we don’t need NSEW, we have 0, 90, 180, 270!

    • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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      5 天前

      Ah… I love airplanes… To be clear, the issue with this is that magnetic 0 is not the same as true 0. There’s a slight offset that can cause issues. So why not have like… True 0 and magnetic 0. T0 and m0?

      • chillpanzee@lemmy.ml
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        5 天前

        Fun fact… there is an ICAO effort to “get rid” of magnetic headings for runway numbers. I listened to a presentation they did last year, and as much as I went into it thinking it wasn’t needed, I was a convert listening to them.

        Btw, magnetic variation is pretty significant in some places. It’s 13 degrees where I am.

      • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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        5 天前

        Why not?

        Because what happens when your referent changes? Which direction is Mars from Earth? We obviously need a single navigational system that works anywhere in the universe.