360
I was working on an estimate (yes, salesmen work sometimes; get over it) which involved multiple geometric problems based upon circles. As I was banging away at the calculator, something occurred to me which I can't believe it took me 46 years of existence to wonder about:
Q: Why in the HELL is a circle divided into 360 degrees instead of, say... 100 degrees?
A: The fucking Sumerians. They used a base-60 mathematics system. Yeah, I know: that's retarded. We have ten fingers not sixty, so... DUH! But they're gone now, so call it karma. Unfortunately, we're still stuck with their stupid 360 degree circle.
You know what makes a lot more sense? Mils. There are 6400 mils in a circle. A mil equals exactly 1 meter of distance perpendicular to line of sight at 1000 meters range. Which is why the sights on your rifle are marked in mils. Mils are also much more precise than degrees for day-to-day (i.e., non-math nerd) use. So we should change everything to mils, yes?
Unfortunately, changing systems requires a period of conversion, sometimes a lengthy one (I'm looking at you, Imperial; stop bullying Metric). Degrees divide into mils as 17.77777 mils/degree, which makes geometry in mils a pain, as you're now analyzing something generated by an irrational number (pi) with a system based upon a repeating number. If you've any doubt about how much of a P.I.T.A. it is to convert mils to degrees and vice versa, just ask anyone who has been to a military land navigation school. Be aware they might hit you. In the mouth.
If simple conversion is annoying, higher math would be hair-tearingly impractical. So, we're stuck with the Sumerians' stupid base-60 system, at least until human civilization is effectively wiped out, the remaining few homo sapiens endure a Thousand Years of Darkness as they eat berries out of elephant crap, and mathematics is eventually completely re-invented from the ground up -- probably by some mutant with nine fingers.
Cheers!
Q: Why in the HELL is a circle divided into 360 degrees instead of, say... 100 degrees?
A: The fucking Sumerians. They used a base-60 mathematics system. Yeah, I know: that's retarded. We have ten fingers not sixty, so... DUH! But they're gone now, so call it karma. Unfortunately, we're still stuck with their stupid 360 degree circle.
You know what makes a lot more sense? Mils. There are 6400 mils in a circle. A mil equals exactly 1 meter of distance perpendicular to line of sight at 1000 meters range. Which is why the sights on your rifle are marked in mils. Mils are also much more precise than degrees for day-to-day (i.e., non-math nerd) use. So we should change everything to mils, yes?
Unfortunately, changing systems requires a period of conversion, sometimes a lengthy one (I'm looking at you, Imperial; stop bullying Metric). Degrees divide into mils as 17.77777 mils/degree, which makes geometry in mils a pain, as you're now analyzing something generated by an irrational number (pi) with a system based upon a repeating number. If you've any doubt about how much of a P.I.T.A. it is to convert mils to degrees and vice versa, just ask anyone who has been to a military land navigation school. Be aware they might hit you. In the mouth.
If simple conversion is annoying, higher math would be hair-tearingly impractical. So, we're stuck with the Sumerians' stupid base-60 system, at least until human civilization is effectively wiped out, the remaining few homo sapiens endure a Thousand Years of Darkness as they eat berries out of elephant crap, and mathematics is eventually completely re-invented from the ground up -- probably by some mutant with nine fingers.
Cheers!
posted by Jar(egg)head at 16:03
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home