Talk:2888: US Survey Foot
Breaking news- the comic just got changed to 8,000.016TenGolf MathHacker (talk) 17:28, 31 January 2024 (UTC)
- As it should ... I did the math, and the difference between the two measurements over 8000 miles comes out to be 25.7249999 meters – which works out to be 0.0159842 of a mile. This is, of course, why it appears that the team and Black Hat are on the shores of the same pond, with only the boulder(?) preventing the team from being able to see Black Hat. RAGBRAIvet (talk) 10:25, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
So no one has caught on to the fact that the imagery of last panel appears to be a continuation of the second-to-last panel? 172.71.155.18 (talk) 19:02, 1 February 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Too obvious to mention explicitly. Although it does place his location at far less than 8000 miles'-worth of accumulated error. Consider it a figurative continuation. 172.69.43.170 21:23, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
UK & Ireland Survey Foot
Until the British Ordnance Survey adopted the metre they used a foot of 0.304 800 749 1 metres.
- So US Miles, UK Miles, and "International" "Imperial" Miles are all different?172.69.194.202 12:10, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
- US and UK/Commonwealth "statute miles" are 1609.344 metres (exactly, since 1959). Though based upon shared origin of 5280 (English) feet. That's probably as International as you can get. (5280*610nm is 3.2208mm of difference if you get mixed up.) But it took a while to even get to "roughly that exact".
- The Roman Mile was 5000 (Roman) feet, approx 1480m, but led also to the Italian Mile of 1852m-ish by various convolutions, whilst the Chinese 'Mile' is officially 500m. Even within Britain, the Scots Mile was 1807m-ish (as seen between some historic roadside mileposts) and the Welsh version was once around 6,170m (even more historic/obsolete).
- Even nautical miles are 'wrong' against what they should be, but are nonetheless standardised to their own separate international standard. (You could say "they're in a league of their own", but then leagues can be anything from 2.2km to 6.6km, at least, depending on where/when you are!) You can probably look all this up, if you really want. ;) 172.71.242.204 12:54, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
There are (or used to be) states that specify U.S. survey measure for various things. Others that specify the international definition. Still others that just leave it undefined. Seems normal.
Although it IS a small difference, the survey grid in the U.S. and thus the property lines for a large portion of the U.S. are done with the older definition and a few reference longi- and latitudes. That could make property lines suddenly shift, so the U.S. survey foot may never fully die. I even made sure it's in my app accurately.
162.158.159.236 19:39, 31 January 2024 (UTC)
Someone should mention who NIST is (National Institute of Standards and Technology). I'm only familiar with them because of their work with information systems.
- And maybe something about the absurdity of NIST having "SEAL Team"-like agents that can capture someone violating their standard. Barmar (talk) 07:20, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
- The explanation doesn't mention the NIST helicopters (which have no precedent), but somehow doubts the US would send a SEAL team where they have no jurisdiction (which does). 198.41.242.118 14:00, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
No Ingenuity tribute comic? :/ 162.158.102.64 21:07, 31 January 2024 (UTC)
- Perhaps he couldn't make his original attempt fly? 172.69.43.170 21:24, 31 January 2024 (UTC)
I love XKCD, but it isn't often they make me laugh out loud. The sheer absurdity of this, and that Randall picked up on it did. 172.68.144.147 21:05, 31 January 2024 (UTC)
I measured the 2 feet that I have readily available. None of them come close to either the International or US Survey foot. And most worrying, the difference between them is significantly more than 610nm.... 172.71.99.49 11:19, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
- You sure you measured correctly? The proper direction is lengthwise... 172.68.138.166 15:47, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
- Please consult a healthcare professional immediately. Laser813 (talk) 20:23, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
- You are non-standard. You will be eliminated. SDSpivey (talk) 17:45, 2 February 2024 (UTC)
I would think 0.016 miles would be close enough for the NIST team to be like "There he is!", :) I love how it looks like they're both on the same lake, what's with "being unusually close compared to what the comic seems to depict", to me it's DEPICTING them pretty close! NiceGuy1 (talk) 06:45, 3 February 2024 (UTC)
