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> The theory, which Romeo relied on partly to guide his search, suggests that when Earhart crossed over the international dateline during her 20-hour flight, he
by Sniffnoy 3y ago
> The theory, which Romeo relied on partly to guide his search, suggests that when Earhart crossed over the international dateline during her 20-hour flight, her navigation system became inaccurate and misdirected her by about 60 miles, potentially leading to a tragic end.
How would this happen? It's not like her plane would have contained a misprogrammed computer.
- ciscoriordan 3y agoAn electrical issue could cause a gauge to misreport. E.g. vibrations cause a bad ground.
- Sniffnoy 3y agoAn electrical issue wouldn't be caused by crossing the international date line.
- dtgriscom 3y agoMaybe the Bermuda Triangle is on walkabout?
- WalterBright 3y agoCrossing the equator causes the sun to flip around and go the other way in the sky. Source: When I went to Australia, the sun went the wrong way. It was curiously unsettling.
- Jgrubb 3y agoGoogle brings me here - http://www.datelinetheory.com/p/time-and-celestial-navigation.html http://www.datelinetheory.com/p/time-and-celestial-navigatio...
- chernevik 3y agoProbably a polite way of saying she screwed up. She had a reputation as an indifferent navigator and aviator which is consistently downplayed.
- bb611 3y agoFred Noonan was hired as the navigator specifically for this leg of the flight because of his navigation skills, which he proved by establishing Pan Am's transpacific routes, so it's not obvious to me why a navigational error would rest on Earhart's lack of skills in that area.
- jameshart 3y agoJournalistic misinterpretation of what an expert told them leading them to write something dumb. Earhart’s “navigation system” was Fred Noonan, an almanac, and a chronometer. Fred looking on the wrong page of the Almanack because he forgot which side of the dateline they were going to be on is what’s implied here.
- wolverine876 3y ago'Navigation system' could be paper, maps, compass, etc. It's modern bias to assume that means 'computer' or 'electronic'.
- pests 3y agoExactly. Just like I have an organization system for my clothes. That doesn't mean I have a computer controlled robot organizing my clothes. It just means socks go in the top left drawer.
- jameshart 3y agoRight, but if a reporter is trying to write a story why all your t-shirts turned pink, and after you explain that system to them, they write: "When the clocks went back at the end of daylight savings, pests' organization system became inaccurate and misdirected a red sock into the whites wash," ... they might have misunderstood what you were trying to say. They certainly aren't doing a good job of explaining to their reader how your clothing organization system works.
- wolverine876 3y agoWhat evidence is there for your accusation against the journalist? I don't see any at all but your personal interpretation of 'system' (which many disagree with) and your personal imagination of how it got into the article.
- jameshart 3y ago
- bb611 3y agoNo computer (device), but definitely a computer (person who computes) the location of the plane and destination in a formula that relies on the correct date for accurate long distance navigation.
- Rebelgecko 3y agoNavigators used tables to determine the longitude that depend on the day. The theory[0] is that because their flight involved multiple day changes, Noonan might've done some on the fly calculation that plugged star positions into the wrong day's table, putting them off by 1 degree of longitude. [0]: http://www.datelinetheory.com/ http://www.datelinetheory.com/, no idea how plausible this is