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Re: Averaging lunars: was Lunars with SNO-T
From: Herbert Prinz
Date: 2004 Nov 1, 05:41 -0500
From: Herbert Prinz
Date: 2004 Nov 1, 05:41 -0500
Alexandre Eremenko wrote: > He (Herbert Prinz), in the same message, also gave references > to the literature where this question of Averaging and > non-linearity was thoroughly investigated. > It is true, I could never find his reply on my message asking > for PRECISE references, but I think it is only because of my poor > copmmand of the search engine on this list. > So, if this question was carefully investigated, and > the results were published, why don't wee > just look at these papers instead of inventing a bicycle again? Alexandre, I apologize to you and everybody else on the list whose specific questions I have not answered in the past month. I am just as overburdened by digesting 25 messages a day as our good list server seems to be. There seems to be a misunderstanding, because I never gave or even hinted at a reference to literature where the problem of averaging observed altitudes has been investigated mathematically. In fact, I do not know of any such literature. Your original question was about averaging altitudes. What I said was just based on looking at the cosine formula. The only vague reference to literature I made, was when I talked about "error elimination", of which I expressly said it DIDN'T apply to navigation. Here I was thinking of Chauvenet's appendix, where he talks about Pierce's criterion for eliminating outliers and such, and some postings on this list from a while ago regarding systematic error. If I have overlooked or forgotten something else I said and that needs clarification, I am sorry and please do ask again. Herbert Prinz