Speed number--figuring out ships speed

[Zosimus]

Originally Posted by 3catcircus

You're joking, right? Chasing it for 32 mins? One can easily calculate speed. Take a range/bearing and plot it. Do it again 3 minutes and 15 seconds later. Measure the distance it has traveled and divide by 100. That's its speed in knots. You can also calculate based on start/stop of the stopwatch as its bow and stern cross the wire, knowing ship length.

No, I'm not joking.

Oh, and I think the number you're looking for 3 minutes 14.4 seconds. That is exactly 3.24 minutes. In fact, if you multiply that number by 10, you'll get the 32.4 minutes that I mentioned above.

But no, I don't measure ship speed over 3m15s because it isn't accurate. You see, even if you have map contacts on, it will surely take you at least a half a second to click the x on the screen and then turn the stopwatch on. Even then, you'll notice that that x is not exactly in the middle of that box. And the problem only gets worse if you zoom in or out. Suddenly the x isn't even near the box.

In fact, a lot of times you'll watch the ship for 6m29s only to find that it appears to have covered 1.3 km. Really? The ship speed is 6.5 knots? I find that hard to believe. Maybe we should watch it out to 9m43s to be certain whether it's speed is closer to 6 or to 7. I suppose you propose to do all that underwater, scope up while the ship is moving away from you. Brilliant.

Or what if you're hunting by hydrophone? How exactly do you determine the ship length from 25m under water at 14 km away? Do you use your psychic abilities?

Or are you one of the types who fires a few torpedoes off and, if they miss, you just reload your last save and try again?