angular measurement using the hand

[greyrider]

this is something i wanted to show in that thread with the big red x,
but never got a chance, this way of angular measurement is rumored to have been
used by Otto Kretschmer, its quick and fast, and works really well in absence of a bino
with a reticule measuring in mils.

first, i have a 40 inch flat screen that i use for the computer monitor, and my game runs
on the 1920 x 1080 setting in options.

this works great on 1920 x 1080, not sure about other settings, so you may have to calibrate your own hand
if you try to use this method to measure distance.

in the first pic below, it shows how to use the hand to measure distance, one finger width is 30 mils,
2 fingers equal 70 mils, and so on as the pic illustrates. follow its direction in how to measure and you will be all set.



the second pic is a pic of a mission i made with sh4 editor to test the hand measurement for distance.
i placed 2 yamoto battleships in line , 1000 yards between the stern of one to the bow of the other to measure, at 3000 yards in range.



in reality, i used my hand, spreading out the fingers just as pic 1 shows, and that measured 300 mils, and there was actually room for one more
finger, for a total measurement of 330 mils.

for a target at a range of 3000 yards, the ot factor is three, so i have 330 mils times 3 for a total of 990 yards,
pretty accurate, dont you agree?

that is the incredible accuracy of the OTC mod by captscurvy, just a brillant mod, if TMO is the cake, then OTC is the frosting.

the third pic, is my hand trying to measure the distance between the two ships, as i would to set up an offset angle using the offset
dial on the position keeper.

it was a very hard pic to take, trying to hold my hand steady while snapping the pic with my phone made my hand cock alittle, but that doesnt happen when
your just measuring without trying to take a pic, but it does show the method and how it could be used in the game.



so now, if you calibrate your own hand, now you will have a way to measure distance between ships, just another tool added to the toolbox.

[Rockin Robbins]

Why use your hand when you can read the numbers off the periscope. Makesanosensa. It's like counting the legs in a herd of cattle and dividing by four to count the cows..

We don't measure angles in mils and neither did Kretschmer so I'm calling bull on this one too. If you really want to learn to use your hand to measure angles then read a book an amateur astronomy. I've been doing it for 30 years and the method has no resemblance to this monstrosity you propose.


Not one sub skipper on Subsim has ever measured an angle in mils and never will. By the way, your hand is NOT spread out as pic 1 shows. Not even close. And you ignore the most important part of the instructions, making your measurements totally worthless. You propose a classic misunderstanding of what you have read. Please don't try to lead our Subsim community astray with your fallacies.

[greyrider]

hello rock... so's hows everything on the tulip farm?

everything ok?

hows Mom?

[Rockin Robbins]

Challenge: One valid, helpful idea for Subsim with a demonstration of ten people who can carry out your instructions and use them to improve their game experience. Just 10 people. Just one valid idea. It's not too much to ask.

Contribute to the community. Don't pollute!

Standard of comparison is a minority of my contributions:

[Sailor Steve]

Okay, I'll give one polite warning. Challenging another member's ideas is fine. Even strong disagreement is fine. Using phrasing like "This monstrosity" is not.

Replying with oddball psychological comments is also not fine. Tit for tat. All even. We'll let it go at that.

The next pejorative comment will not be treated so lightly. Personal attacks are definitely not allowed.

[Rockin Robbins]

For those who aren't holding their scorecards, already established is that a mil is the logical fraction of 1/17.777777777 (the 7 repeats forever) of a degree. Why it should be useful has not been established. Where we are supposed be be obtaining measurements in mils has not been established. That any submariner from the beginning of time until the present has ever used the mil as their angular measurement nomenclature has not been established.

Otto Kretchmer's name has been dropped but not connected to the issue. Unsourced material with an impressive-looking diagram having nothing to do with anything maritime has been presented to lend credibility to what? That is not established either. In addition, terms, such as "ot factor" have been bandied without definition, application or explanation as to what they are and why they apply. There is apparently some attempt to connect the validity of OTC with the validity of the contentions by the OP, although how that is supposed to apply has not been established. It is not even clear what his contention is.

And that's the score as we stand.

[Rockin Robbins]

Here are clear instructions on how to measure angles with your hand, taught well and in language you can easily understand and use yourself.

See how I don't distort material cited? See how I support with links to credible sources, which don't contradict my point? See how the instructions I cite from two different sources don't leave crucial information out, like that it is vital that your hand be at a certain position relative to your eye or nothing works. And that this works in real life but not on computer screens, which distort angles and warp flat space to fit it on the screen.

A couple of rules of thumb that will help to apply angles. An object that subtends 1º is 57.2 times further away than the dimension subtended. That means that if a ship were 300' long and subtended 1º it would be 57x300 = 17,100 feet or 5,700 yards away. Objects subtending 30º are twice as far away as they are in the dimension whose angle you are measuring. Objects subtending 45º are as far away as they are long.

I used to use the 45º rule with my sextant, measuring sailboat masts. People hate taking down their mast to measure its height and need to know whether they can get under that bridge. So I would set my sextant at 45º and back up until the top of the mast lined up with the base of the mast. All I had to do then was measure my distance to the mast with a tape measure and that was the height. Took two minutes! To be accurate we add the height from the mast seat to the waterline to get height of the masthead above the water. Sometimes you can't see the mast seat so you can use the cabin top instead.