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Show HN: Degrees What?

degreeswhat.com

71–80 of 124 posts

Re: Show HN: Degrees What?

#71
post #7

The 'compass' setting is a minefield if done 'correctly' For the kinds of maps I coded for in the 1980's you'll want your compass rose to indicate * Geographic North (on, say a WGS84 ellipsoid) * Magnetic North (where a magnetic compass points, this varies by time and geographic location) * Rotational North (the spin axis of the planet - it walks a bit) This things can be added if you're looking for an additional ( p…

I was tempted to add device orientation for mobile, but figured people might think it was an actual compass, and AFAIK support is a bit spotty.

> device orientation for mobile

On Google maps this is supposed to use the magnetometer to point the arrow in the correct direction, but it never works and nor does the stupid calibration phone-waving thing it asks you to do.

Re: Show HN: Degrees What?

#76

Next convert it to radians.

Radians is there (on laptop at least). Never heard of gons before, but it's missing mils (used in the military as 1 mil with a radius of 1km subtends an arc of about 1m. Actually, never thought about whether the US military would use it, what with their funny units and all). Though I suppose a mil is a milli-radian.

Re: Show HN: Degrees What?

#78
> 15° is the angle the Earth turns in one hour

It's actually more like 15.0411° in an hour. This matters if you're keeping a telescope pointed at something in the night sky to take a picture of it.

Re: Show HN: Degrees What?

#79

> 15° is the angle the Earth turns in one hour It's actually more like 15.0411° in an hour. This matters if you're keeping a telescope pointed at something in the night sky to take a picture of it.

Is that just down to frame of reference, i.e. the difference between the solar day and the sidereal day?

Re: Show HN: Degrees What?

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kelvin is not measured in degrees however, so is excluded by implication

It's not? What is it measured in then?

It is simply measured in Kelvin.

Kelvin is the standard unit for temperature, 0 Kelvin is the absolute zero point. Each step is the same size as a degree Celsius, but there are no "degrees".

Edit: remove assertion that the scale does not go into negative, because physics.

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