tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Dec 15 08:25:48 1994

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Can't get there from here (Was Re: negative angle)

Not sure if this got out the first time, so here it is again:
My humble submission to the high and holy.
COMMENTARY Follows:

charghwI' had written:
>I can only interpret "negative" to be a reference to some form
>of measurement of an angle. We don't know how Klingons measure
>angles. Could it mean "downward" in the sense of 360 degrees
>measured up from forward, counting up to 180 degrees and there
>meeting a negative scale starting at the same point, counting
>from zero to -180 degrees? If so, could it also mean "toward
>the left", assuming a horizontal measurement from dead ahead
>counting 0 to 180 degrees toward the right and 0 to -180
>degrees toward the left?
>
>Or maybe forward is not the vector of origin. Maybe downward
>is, and maybe there is some kind of compass reading. Perhaps it
>is like Federation coordinate readings with the ray of origin
>going from the ship to the center of the nearest galaxy.
>
>In short, we have no context for this word and the definition
>is far too vague to be useful. So far as I am concerned, it
>merely uses up a potential letter combination and a couple
>lines in TKD and is otherwise useless.

Spacial (and sub-oceanic) navigation requires 3 dimentional
thinking along an x, y and z axis. Conventional thinking would
surmise that a negative angle would be along the y axis as in
conventional terran navigation, the x (horizontal) is measured
clockwise from 0 (directly in front, ahead), 90 (right side,
starboard), 180 (rear) and 270 (left side, port). The verticle
direction (y) would go from 0 (even with the horizon directly in
front), 90 (directly above your head) to 180 (at the horizon,
directly behind). The negative declination now comes into effect
as you would travel down from the "horizon". A neg. 10 degrees
would be infront of you, down 10 degrees. A neg. 90, under your
feet, etc. I can't explain the z axis though (so why'd I bring
it up?). I remember a line from "The Wrath of Kahn" when Kirk
realized that Kahn thought 2-D so he had Sulu set a Negative Z
course to get under Kahn's ship.

I agree that there needs to be some work done on "Degrees",
"Minutes", and "Seconds" as well as compass points. Perhaps a
good temporary nomenclature would be to use the clock directions
(as in he's on your 3 o'clock or at your 11 o'clock high)??

******
An addendum to the first transmission:
I've given some more thought to the use of navigation and recall
that the Fed. Standard usage is along the lines of "122 24 mark 12"
(as an example) where the coordinates are derived from the planet
Dirt (or Earth or Soil, I forget what they call Terra) at 0,0
mark 0. Astronomicly the correct coordinates would use the
Galactic core as the center (0,0 mark 0).

vlta'pu'be' !!!
Steve Weaver     [email protected]

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