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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Lunars: series vs. triangle methods
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2004 Sep 26, 23:24 EDT
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2004 Sep 26, 23:24 EDT
Fred H wrote:
" but I see no need to change well-established terminology in this field. "
The terminology is misleading and archaic, and I am hardly the first person on this list to point out the fact. This terminology was created at a time when mathematicians in England still used expressions like "the fluxions of a spherical triangle". The exact equivalence between a function and its infinite series was not yet fully understood. Today, it leaves many would-be lunarians mistakenly thumbing their noses at series methods and cozying up to triangle methods because they hear the word "rigorous" and it sets off an emotional reaction.
The earliest popular methods for clearing lunars were series methods including the one Maskelyne recommended way back in 1764 (see "Maskelyne's method" --upcoming post). All four methods in Bowditch in the heyday of lunars were series methods. Three out of five methods in contemporary Norie were series methods. Letcher's 1970s method is a series method. All of these are essentially identical to the basic series approach that I posted in "Easy Lunars" with differences
And:
"But my apologies if it offended you."
No, it did not in the slightest. As I said, the series method is not "my" method.
Frank R
[ ] Mystic, Connecticut
[X] Chicago, Illinois
" but I see no need to change well-established terminology in this field. "
The terminology is misleading and archaic, and I am hardly the first person on this list to point out the fact. This terminology was created at a time when mathematicians in England still used expressions like "the fluxions of a spherical triangle". The exact equivalence between a function and its infinite series was not yet fully understood. Today, it leaves many would-be lunarians mistakenly thumbing their noses at series methods and cozying up to triangle methods because they hear the word "rigorous" and it sets off an emotional reaction.
The earliest popular methods for clearing lunars were series methods including the one Maskelyne recommended way back in 1764 (see "Maskelyne's method" --upcoming post). All four methods in Bowditch in the heyday of lunars were series methods. Three out of five methods in contemporary Norie were series methods. Letcher's 1970s method is a series method. All of these are essentially identical to the basic series approach that I posted in "Easy Lunars" with differences
And:
"But my apologies if it offended you."
No, it did not in the slightest. As I said, the series method is not "my" method.
Frank R
[ ] Mystic, Connecticut
[X] Chicago, Illinois
