4 ms·
360 comes from the Babylonians, who used base-60 for numbers much for the reasons you describe (and who gave us the 24-hour day, 60 minute hour and 60-minute se
by fmajid 4y ago
360 comes from the Babylonians, who used base-60 for numbers much for the reasons you describe (and who gave us the 24-hour day, 60 minute hour and 60-minute second, not to mention the 7-day week).
NATO forces have compasses labelled in mils or milliradians, which are not actually 1/1000 of a radian but as an approximation 1/6400 of a full turn. I still have my Silva military compass from 1989 graduated thus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milliradian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milliradian
- quickthrower2 4y agoI heard that the reason is 1km away it makes a difference of 1m, so easy to figure out how far enemy troops are from each other.
- jibe 4y agoIt is even cooler than that. 1 milliradian is simply the distance (radius) divided by 1000, regardless of the unit of measure. So 1 km / 1000 = 1 m. At 100 m, 1 milliradian is 1 cm. At 1000 yards 1 milliradian is 1 yard. At 1 mile (5280 feet), 1 milliradian is 5.280 feet.
- int_19h 4y agoMore importantly, it can be used for ranging. The average human height is known, and (usually) so are the sizes of whatever vehicles the other side might be using. Thus, when observing things of known size through some optic with a reticle graduated in mils, you can easily determine the range to them. Which then gives you e.g. the amount of holdover necessary to hit the target with a gun (which can itself be expressed as number of mils on the reticle to aim above).
- quickthrower2 4y agoAh of course it is the other way around like you say. You know the size of things, you need to figure out the distance.
- ncmncm 4y agoWait, like instead of 1/6283.185307 of a turn? That's wild! (It is off by 1.86%. That much error matters, nowadays, though it wouldn't have, back when.)
- fmajid 4y agoAnd apparently the Warsaw Pact had an even worse 6000, and Sweden a more accurate (but less divisble) 6300.