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

  • sznowicki@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    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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      22 days ago

      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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        22 days ago

        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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        22 days ago

        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.

        • SpikesOtherDog@ani.social
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          22 days ago

          Easy! Assuming the earth is the center of the universe, coordinates are 360,360

          ± the current position of the Earth in the solar system ± the current position of the solar system in the Milky Way. In the Local Cluster, in the Local Group, in the Virgo Supercluster, in the Local Mesh

          In order to return, we just go that way: