tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Dec 16 08:32:01 1994
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RE: negative angle
Not that it's canon, but I feel that 'negative angle' most likely refers
to how one would hold one's disruptor pistol when your Captain ordered
you to lower your weapons. (That is, to cause your disruptor to be at a
negative angle.)
In mathematics and physics, there's no particular meaning to the phrase
until you *define* what an angle of 0 o is. If you take a XY plot and
define the +X axis as 0 o (the common solution), then anything *moving*
down from +X towards the -Y axis is "at a negative angle". If you just
want to state the position, you'd say something like 315 degrees. But if
you describe someone moving a disruptor straight ahead down to 315
degrees, instead of saying rotate 315 degrees (which would look silly, and
*really* disjoint your arm), a physicist or mathematician would describe
the move as being a -45 degree turn.
Another thought I had was of the listing ship in space that in Trek is
usually represented by a ship pointing down ("at a negative angle"). If
we conclude that >tlhInganpu'< went thru a aerospace phase as we are in
here on Earth, then "being at a negative angle" would equate with having
your nose (of the plane) down.
So, that's how I'd annotate any entry... (Thus, permission granted for
AKD compilers to extract relevant material.)
Dave.
<[email protected]> >tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh'a'?< "Pardon me, but if I must
David E G Sturm, Laboratory Manager operate in a vacuum, can
Wake Forest University Department of Physics I at least have a little
Box 7261 Reynolda Station, Winston-Salem NC 27109 ether to calm my nerves?"