tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Nov 28 00:55:35 1999
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RE: cardinal directions
ter'eS:
>>>
>>> If you put <chan> at the top of your map, then the compass
>>> rose for the three cardinal points looks remarkably like the
>>> Klingon trefoil!
Seqram:
>>
>> I truly doubt that was a coincidence.
>>
>> Actually, I rolled my eyes at this chan/'ev/tIng thing. OK,
>> Klingons like threes, we get the picture, but that doesn't
>> mean they're OBSSESSED with the number! We like tens, but
>> we still have four cardinal directions, divide our feet into
>> twelve inches, etc. Four seems a lot more sensible... But
>> then, I don't know much about how Terran cultures in general
>> make their directions. I know that places like Hawai'i develop
>> directions like "seaward" and "inland" and so on. Maybe there
>> are places that use a 3-way deal like Klingon. But hey, we
>> have it, and I even get my "East", which I needed both for
>> Jonah and the Tower of Babel translations.
DraQoS:
>
> I too rolled my eyes when I read this. It appears that such
> a coordinate system would be very inefficient, as it would
> require a minimum of 3 numbers to describe a point on a map.
> (For further clarification, one may look at how location of
> Klin Zha pieces are demarked.) Our present system requires
> only two. Four cardinal points in 2 dimensions yields only 2
> numbers, whereas 3 cardinal points in 2 dimensions require 3
> numbers.
nuqjatlh? cha' mI'mey neH poQlu'.
Any point in the plane can be expressed as a combination of any two of the
<chan>, <'ev>, and <tIng> vectors. Furthermore, any point can be expressed
as a *positive* combination (i.e. both coefficients are positive) of zero,
one, or two of these vectors. Every point in area between <chan> and <tIng>
can be described as A*<chan>+B*<tIng> (both A & B > 0), and so forth. This
is actually pretty important - how many primitive cultures do you know of
who could even conceive of saying "negative nine miles south". Three is the
minimum number of cardinal directions required for this sort of thing, so it
in some ways makes even *more* sense than our North East South West system.
Of course, there are no right angles, but hey - it was invented a *long*
time ago.
pagh
Beginners' Grammarian