3 ms·
If you use coordinates, make sure to take into account continental drift. You could use a plate-local coordinate system (e.g. British National Grid for Great Br
by chaz6 3y ago
If you use coordinates, make sure to take into account continental drift. You could use a plate-local coordinate system (e.g. British National Grid for Great Britain) so you only need to take into account deformation.
There is actually a good read on this at https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/is-britain-on-the-move https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/is-britain-on-the-move
- crooked-v 3y agoWhat about storing current geo coordinates and a timestamp of when they were recorded? I feel like that should be enough for a theoretical future system to adjust mapping for continental drift.
- joshspankit 3y agoEspecially assuming an increase in computing intelligence in that time.
- ethbr1 3y agoThe problem with geo coordinates is reverse mapping them back into political owners, so you can then determine current timezone policy. There's 4 things at play here: - Coordinate location on the planet - Identifier for that location - Political entity for that location - Current timezone policy Of those, coordinates are the only thing that doesn't change over time (for the spans we're talking about). But are also a pain in the ass to use. F.ex. I'm sure someone on HN has the lat long for London memorized, but I don't.
- dmurray 3y agoLondon is perhaps the only major city where you could be expected to know one of these coordinates. It's defined to have longitude 0.
- c4mpute 3y agoI suggest giving date and time in the form of phase/frequency references to nearby pulsars. That should guarantee stability for a few million years.
- euroderf 3y agoEurope as a whole is too. IIRC there's a set of points around the periphery of the continent that are measured to centimeter accuracy.