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George
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Mar, 2005 08:20 am
In my current job I have to deal with "knots" or nautical miles per hour.
I knew that a nautical mile was different from a regular mile, but I never knew why.

I learned that a nautical mile is based on the circumference of the Earth
at the equator. Taking it as a circle, it is divided into 360 degrees. Each
degree is divided into 60 minutes. Each minute of arc is 1 nautical mile.

A nautical mile is 1.1508 miles, or 6,076 feet (1.852 kilometers).
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georgeob1
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Mar, 2005 08:36 am
which, of course means that one minute of latitude is exactly equal to one nautical mile. This is a particularly practical benefit for navigators using charts, based on mercator projections of the earth's surface.
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Mar, 2005 03:07 pm
Lord Ellpus wrote:
Good Lord (wait a mo, thats ME!!!)....Good grief, it looks like its been designed by a Committee !
Tell me, dlowan, I note that your reference sites are from Tas, is that where you live perchance? Wine glass bay? Launceston? Beautiful scenery, very much like Scotland.
Ellpus.


No - Adelaide.

Mediterranean climate near the coast - desert interior. But beautiful beaches and such - wine, olives...
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Francis
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Mar, 2005 03:13 pm
And someone has to undo the knots...Maybe using portolans..
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paulaj
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Mar, 2005 03:15 pm
Today, I learned that debutantes have balls.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1226097#1226097
0 Replies
 
Francis
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Mar, 2005 03:21 pm
paulaj wrote:
Today, I learned that debutantes have balls.


Laughing Laughing would you obect to me giving you my arm? :wink:
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RiNgPoPs N gLoWsTiCkS
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Mar, 2005 03:50 pm
today i learned never to go to school stoned
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paulaj
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Mar, 2005 05:21 pm
Francis wrote:
paulaj wrote:
Today, I learned that debutantes have balls.


Laughing Laughing would you obect to me giving you my arm? :wink:

Not at all Francis. Very Happy
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littlek
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Mar, 2005 07:08 pm
Ok, I get you Dag. And, I couldn't tell if elephants had knee caps on their front knees/elbows - thanks for clarifying, Gravy.

gravy wrote:
Lk: did your learning include the why? Does it have to do with women's more active cross-over thingy of the right-left brain bridge?


It has to do with the XX and XY chromosomes. Women have duplicate genes - 2 full sets of x chromosome - where men only have one full set and one dinky one (the Y chromosome).

Women have over 1000 genes in each X chromosome, but men have around 50 on the Y. So, when something goes wrong with a gene or set of genes, a woman can recover those genes from the other chromosome where men aren't as like to be able to do so. So, if a gene is mutated to cause mental or physical problems men are less likely to be able to compensate for it.

As for the genius, let me see if I can remember.... Those extra genes can sometimes work against each other. One set may dumb down the other set in a woman where that would be less likely to happen in a man. I can't recall exact details on that part.

It's recent news, you could easily google it.
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littlek
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Mar, 2005 07:11 pm
Gearge - cool thing about the knots! Now, why is a fathom 6 feet deep?
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gravy
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Mar, 2005 01:15 am
LK: thanks for the chromosome lesson. Very intriguing. It seems this thing we call human is a complex little bugger.

dlowan: are there any celebrations in Oz that relate to the seasons/equinox, etc? like harvest fests or other earthly connected jamborees?

Today I learned how to tile a bathroom by watching.
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Mar, 2005 02:28 am
gravy wrote:
LK: thanks for the chromosome lesson. Very intriguing. It seems this thing we call human is a complex little bugger.

dlowan: are there any celebrations in Oz that relate to the seasons/equinox, etc? like harvest fests or other earthly connected jamborees?

Today I learned how to tile a bathroom by watching.


Well, we have - especially here in South Australia, where most Australian wine comes from - the Bushing Festival - a sort of vintage festival...
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Lord Ellpus
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Mar, 2005 07:38 am
dlowan wrote:
Lord Ellpus wrote:
Good Lord (wait a mo, thats ME!!!)....Good grief, it looks like its been designed by a Committee !
Tell me, dlowan, I note that your reference sites are from Tas, is that where you live perchance? Wine glass bay? Launceston? Beautiful scenery, very much like Scotland.
Ellpus.


No - Adelaide.

Mediterranean climate near the coast - desert interior. But beautiful beaches and such - wine, olives...


Adelaide eh? Sounds marvellous, Barossa Wines are superb by the way.....stopped there once (or was it Melbourne) shooting through from Perth on the way to Fiji. Sat in the plane for an hour while we refuelled.
Wonderful Tarmac, positively shimmering in the heat.
I understand you have a lot of Greek and Italian people there. I say this, as I was in Kefalonia once, and went into a shop to peruse the merchandise. I had been brushing up on my greek for the past week, and said to the assistant, "Hola, avez vous il biero froide por favor Stavros?" He replied "No worries mate, the tinnies are over there, and dont worry about the smoke coming out of the cooler, she'll be right"
Turns out he was from Adelaide, back visiting the rellies.
I dont know, you learn a foreign language and they all reply in English!
Ellpus.
0 Replies
 
George
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Mar, 2005 09:36 am
littlek wrote:
Gearge - cool thing about the knots! Now, why is a fathom 6 feet deep?


Setting aside the obvious "unfathomable" comebacks...

A fathom was supposed to be the distance fingertip-to-fingertip spanned
by a man's outstretched arms. It was originally used a land
measurement, but by the seventeenth century, it was only used to
measure water depth.
0 Replies
 
Francis
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Mar, 2005 09:55 am
George wrote:
A fathom was supposed to be the distance fingertip-to-fingertip spanned by a man's outstretched arms... It was only used to
measure water depth.


As this distance generally equals a man's height, it was supposed to be the maximum water depth in which man was able survive drowning.
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paulaj
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Mar, 2005 01:49 pm
George wrote:
A fathom was supposed to be the distance fingertip-to-fingertip spanned
by a man's outstretched arms. It was originally used a land
measurement, but by the seventeenth century, it was only used to
measure water depth.

The length of a persons arms is equal to their height. Hence what francis said.

Did Leonardo De Vinci discover that?
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Francis
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Mar, 2005 02:05 pm
No, Paula, but he painted/designed that.
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paulaj
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Mar, 2005 02:17 pm
Aha, who figured it out first? I want to learn something Laughing
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George
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Mar, 2005 02:30 pm
paulaj wrote:
Aha, who figured it out first? I want to learn something Laughing


That would be Gruntos and Gronos, two ancient Greek lovers.
The circumstances of this discovery do not bear repeating, however.
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Francis
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Mar, 2005 02:43 pm
George, Laughing

Paula - the ancient egyptians did knew this measure unit.
0 Replies
 
 

 
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