longitude and latitude

[tiddy ogg]

If you study RL history, latitude, via sextant, was easily achieved, but the search for longitude measurement was fascinating... injuring a land-based dog, in the belief that it's marine siblings would feel the pain and yelp at the same time, etc. This led to the invention of accurate clocks. As Cantrians seem to know the time precisely already, perhaps here that part would be much simpler.

[Just A Bill]

I like the idea of the device set to 0 at the location it is created, if and only if the zero point can be adjusted at a later time either telling it to calibrate to current location, or giving it an offset to zero it too from its current 0.

In other words, you arrive in a town that you know is 100 units north and 500 units east of the town that your group has decided to use as its zero point. So first you zero to the current location, then you adjust your zero 100n and 500e. Now you are zeroed to the town you decided to use as the zero point.

Explorers could put notes in various locations defining the zero point they use in their maps and others could use that info to set their devices.

[TatteredShoeLace]

So long as it is not a fixed system that allows for OOC means of finding sailing routes, I'm for it.

[Pie]

Actually... I would think that you should have some sort of tool, like an obolisk, telling people how long the shadow is, and then you can place that as zero, and when you find a different obolisk, you will know how short or long that shadow is compaird to the one that you said was zero. as fore longitude(I think thats the one that has the lines going north to south.. and it mesures how east and west you are) I don't know.

But interestingly, the indians were able to find the circumferance of the earth in 500 a.d.(that to about 1200 a.d..... I can forget easaly.) I think there should be some way to do that... wait... there is...

And of course, as we all know, at the canter equater, the shadows should be at a 0 degree angle(no shadow) to a 100 degree shadow(at the north pole, were the sun is exactly halfway doun the horizon.

And I also think that there should be a projecto to use on the obolisk called "measuring shadows" and the acurasy of it should be determind by the skill of the person.

[Pie]

Oh, and.... well.... that's exactly what latitudes would be used for.... Sailing... and astronamy and other stuff like that.

[TatteredShoeLace]

*concentrates to make sense of everything*

You know Pie, things at Earth's equator do cast shadows sometimes, and things at the north pole would not have a 100 degree shadow, I don't believe.

I just think that lat and long should be something that is learned gradually by one char, and sharing that information seems difficult.

[fishfin]

2 things, if you are in a location it should be posible to change your device so that that location is set to 0, andyour mesurement wont always be acurate, close but not acurate

[PRUT]

Zero point should be chosen dynamically. To let charries compare their maps to create common systems. For example:

You have your own system when city A you set as (0,0), and city B as (2N,3W), then You meet a traveller who made a map of many other places in the world, and he tells you that city A is located on (35N, 96E) from Cantr city and if you want to adapt your system to his, you would just change numbers of city A (still your zero point) to 35N, 96E. Then if you travel to city B and use sekstant, values would be not 2N, 3W, but 37N, 93E acording to zero point.


this change also enable distance measurement and probably not all chars would be good in geometry and good navigation would not be for everyone as it is now.

[Pie]

*concentrates to make sense of everything*

You know Pie, things at Earth's equator do cast shadows sometimes, and things at the north pole would not have a 100 degree shadow, I don't believe.

I just think that lat and long should be something that is learned gradually by one char, and sharing that information seems difficult.

Up on the north pole, there would be half of the sun bloked out by the earth. And on the equaiter, the only way for a shadow to happen is if the sun actually moved around the earth. but in cantr, the sun is in a fixed position, and I think we should make it so the sun makes the same shadow on the entier equaiter. makes it simpeler that way.

[west]

Pie, you're a nut.

But yes, the cantr map currently wraps in both directions--cantr folk live on a giant donut.

Obviously we can't judge distance by shadows, as the sun (or suns--ever wonder why it's always daylight everywhere?) don't really move.

I do like the idea of a calibratable lat/long finder.

But how are you going to make a latitude and longitude system for a world that wraps in both directions?

[Chris Johnson]

But how are you going to make a latitude and longitude system for a world that wraps in both directions?

A coordinate system for such a case is extremely easy - How do you think the game maps work ? The complexity of longitude and latitude aren't required in this case as straight forward cartesian geometry works - Longitude and latitude are particular to plotting position on a spherical surface .

[formerly known as hf]

But how are you going to make a latitude and longitude system for a world that wraps in both directions?

The same way it works on our sphere - you need a point of origin where x or y (or both) is zero.

I would like to see whatever tool is used for lat/long able to be calibrated. I heard someone say that the point of origin for a device will be where it's made, you should be able to easily re-calibrate it by taking it to another location. Being able to do that will increase the likelihood that Cantrains will develop some more common origin points, - if an important map is made using a certain origin - then people will travel to that origin to calibrate their devices - they might not bother if it means travelling there and making a whole new one.

[marol]

And what about to not only calibrate center point, but measurement unit too?

[west]

Eh. I'd prefer standard measuring units. Because how would you calibrate it? Half the distance from Krif to Drojf, travelled by a lightly-burdened, fully-rested man? Plus there's a walking "skill" even if it's not implemented yet.

[formerly known as hf]

It would be good to have dynamic measurment units - but I think the implementation of a system which allows that would be quite difficult...