Close Enough? Angles & Accuracy of Measurement in Navigation
Accuracy of measurement in navigation depends very much on the situation. If a sailor's target is an island 200 km wide, sailing off center by 10 or 20 km is not a major problem. But, if the island were only 1 km wide, it would be missed if off just the smallest bit. Many of the measurements made while navigating involve angles, and a small error in the angle can translate to a much larger error in position when traveling long distances.
High accuracy and low precisionCopyright DarkEvil. Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:High_accuracy_Low_precision.svg?uselang=en
Engineers are highly aware of accuracy and precision in their work. They make calculations to assure a spacecraft's journey is timed exactly to land on an orbiting moon. Engineers who design medicines and medical instruments (x-rays, lasers, surgery equipment) must be careful so that these technologies are not harmful to people. Everyday, engineers specify the structure of buildings and bridges so they are strong enough. Other engineers calculate the exact amount of fuel required for a rocket to make it to space, or design the controls systems and software to make sure missiles are consistently accurate and precise in reaching their targets.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Understand that navigation is based on mathematics
- Understand accuracy and precision
- Use right triangle trigonometry and angle measurements to calculate distances
- Understand the relationship between triangulation technology and other fields of study (i.e. mathematics)