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    Re: Angular inclination of an interstate highway
    From: Jackson McDonald
    Date: 2013 Dec 31, 20:07 +0000
    Yep, that's me.  



    From: FrankReed@HistoricalAtlas.com
    To: jacksonmcdonald@hotmail.com
    Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2013 11:57:56 -0800
    Subject: [NavList] Re: Angular inclination of an interstate highway


    Jackson McDonald, you wrote:
    "I'm neither an engineer nor a math whiz"
    In this case, actually, you may be in safer waters BECAUSE you do not have as much math background. This issue of dealing with small angles is one where a certain amount of mathematical background can get a person in trouble. Everyone that I have met who has good competence in trigonometry immediately wants to jump for the trig functions when they encounter a puzzle like this. This works... much as you can break eggs with a sledgehammer. Very effective. But over-kill and... messy! For small angles, we need to remember that angles ARE ratios --expressable as "percentages" as in those road signs or as plain numbers which is when they're often called angles in "radians" (this is true for any angle, but for small angles it's more important in practical terms). And we convert those ratios to minutes arc by multiplying by that magic number, 3438.
    And if you can do it in your head, then you can entertain yourself while driving! Whenever I am driving cross-country, when I encounter one of these grade signs giving the inclination in percentage, I work out the angle in my head to keep myself a little busy.
    -FER
    PS: This must be you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_McDonald. Fascinating! ? ???? ?????? ???????? ??-??????.
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