French: arc terrestreEnglish translation: arc 
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French to English translations [PRO]
Science - Geography / measuring longitude | | French term or phrase: arc terrestre | In this sentence about an instrument for calculating longitude:
"... qui offre la lecture de l'angle horaire en degrés et minutes de l'arc terrestre."
I'm guessing "earth's curve".
Many thanks, am running out of energy and need help!! |
| | Clarification request(s) and responseTony M: 3:28pm Mar 27, 2006: I think you'll find it is probably going to be 'arc ...', but I'm no expert here I'lm afraid -
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| | arc | Explanation:
I have certainly come across "degrees/minutes of arc" many times in astronomy referring to the sky (and the distinction is not made there by the use of "celestial"); from what I can gather, it is not geneally made in the measurement of longitude on earth either by calling it "Earth's/terrestrial arc" etc. Given the context, I think it ought to be perfectly obvious that it is referring to the earth as opposed to the sky - though I wouldn't disagree with "the Earth's arc" or "terrestrial arc".
Here are a couple of examples of the use of simply "arc" to refer to the Earth as opposed to the sky:
"Both methods were tested by sea trials. The lunar tables permitted the determination of longitude within four minutes of arc, but with Harrison's chronometer the precision was only one minute of arc. Ultimately, portions of the prize money were awarded to Mayer’s widow, Euler, and Harrison..."
http://www.aticourses.com/global_positioning_system.htm
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Note added at 7 hrs (2006-03-27 23:17:38 GMT)
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Sorry, that was only one! But there must be thousands of others out there.
"The NMEA data is plainly "stuck", the latitude and longitude values do not change over a period of possibly 30 seconds. This differs from a range of other GPS devices Garmin/Pretec and Pino units where we typically see a change of 1/0000 minutes of arc, equivalent to 0.18 meters."
http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-...
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| Selected response from:
 Peter Shortall
United Kingdom
| Note from asker to answererI'm choosing Peter's "arc" for the additional information regarding the non-use of "Earth's" or "terrestrial". His reference to Harrison gave me the idea to consult a book I have on the subject of timekeeping at sea and the 1714 Longitude Act which promised a reward to whomever found a means to determine longitude at sea "to within one degree" / "to within 40 minutes of arc" / "to within 30 minutes of arc". The closer they got, the more money they earned!
Many thanks to everyone for taking time to help me.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
|
11 mins confidence:   |
| Earth's arc
Explanation:
CodeGuru: Geographic Distance and Azimuth Calculations - [ Traduire cette page ]... circle path and the center of the Earth (arc b is ... in Problem 1B with lat2 = 0.0 and lon2 = longitude of the ... right on the horizon, so we will measure the tilt ...
codeguru.com/Cpp/Cpp/algorithms/article.php/c5115/ - 90k - Résultat complémentaire - En cache - Pages similaires
Search Results for measure* - [ Traduire cette page ]... which he defined as the length of one minute of the Earth's arc. ... Cassini made a measurement of an arc of longitude in 1712 but obtained a result ...
www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/ Search/historysearch.cgi?SUGGESTION=measure*&CONTEXT=1 - 103k
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Note added at 12 mins (2006-03-27 15:32:54 GMT)
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About the choice of the quarter of the meridian - [ Traduire cette page ]1 degree of Earth's arc, 1/100000, 111, 1.057. 1 minute of Earth's arc $^{(*)}$, 1/1000, 185, 1.367. 1 second of Earth's arc, 1/100, 31, 0.558 ...
www.roma1.infn.it/~dagos/history/sm/node12.html - 10k - En cache - Pages similaires
The Earth based units of length and the birth of the metric system - [ Traduire cette page ]1670, Mouton proposes a unit of length equal to one minute of Earth's arc. along a meridian (equal to present nautical mile). ...
www.roma1.infn.it/~dagos/history/sm/node4.html - 23k - En cache - Pages similaires
A History of Science Volume I - Part VI - [ Traduire cette page ]Their significance consists in the fact that here is a measured bit of the earth's arc five thousand stadia in length. If we could find out what angle that ...
www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/ sci/history/AHistoryofScienceVolumeI/chap37.html
| Francis MARC
Lithuania
Native speaker of:  French
PRO pts in category: 7
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14 mins confidence: |
2 hrs confidence: |
7 hrs confidence: |
| arc
Explanation:
I have certainly come across "degrees/minutes of arc" many times in astronomy referring to the sky (and the distinction is not made there by the use of "celestial"); from what I can gather, it is not geneally made in the measurement of longitude on earth either by calling it "Earth's/terrestrial arc" etc. Given the context, I think it ought to be perfectly obvious that it is referring to the earth as opposed to the sky - though I wouldn't disagree with "the Earth's arc" or "terrestrial arc".
Here are a couple of examples of the use of simply "arc" to refer to the Earth as opposed to the sky:
"Both methods were tested by sea trials. The lunar tables permitted the determination of longitude within four minutes of arc, but with Harrison's chronometer the precision was only one minute of arc. Ultimately, portions of the prize money were awarded to Mayer’s widow, Euler, and Harrison..."
http://www.aticourses.com/global_positioning_system.htm
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 7 hrs (2006-03-27 23:17:38 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Sorry, that was only one! But there must be thousands of others out there.
"The NMEA data is plainly "stuck", the latitude and longitude values do not change over a period of possibly 30 seconds. This differs from a range of other GPS devices Garmin/Pretec and Pino units where we typically see a change of 1/0000 minutes of arc, equivalent to 0.18 meters."
http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-...
| Peter Shortall
United Kingdom
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4
|
| Note from asker to answererI'm choosing Peter's "arc" for the additional information regarding the non-use of "Earth's" or "terrestrial". His reference to Harrison gave me the idea to consult a book I have on the subject of timekeeping at sea and the 1714 Longitude Act which promised a reward to whomever found a means to determine longitude at sea "to within one degree" / "to within 40 minutes of arc" / "to within 30 minutes of arc". The closer they got, the more money they earned!
Many thanks to everyone for taking time to help me. |
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