On Sun, 11 May 2008 12:15:32 -0500, "Ryan P."
<rpaque@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Jim Gysin wrote:
> > In Thursday's episode, Sayid was told by Gault that (according to
> > Faraday) a bearing of 305 is the only safe way to get "to and from the
> > boat."
> >
> > In the season two finale, Michael was told to follow a bearing of 325
> > *from* the island to "find rescue."
> >
> > If things are stationary (as in the island is not spinning, or some
> > such thing) and a bearing of 325 takes you safely *away* from the
> > island (as it seemed to do for Michael), wouldn't it be most likely
> > that to get safely *to* the island you would want to follow a course
> > of 035?
> .
> The bearing you follow to approach the island would change depending
> on where your starting point is.
But for the bearing to be the same coming *and* going, then either the
island has moved 180 degrees relative to the freighter or the freighter
has moved 180 degrees relative to the island. Or each has move 90
degrees, or some other combination of movement that adds up to the
required 180 degrees. Because all other things being equal, if I leave
an island and travel NW (305 degrees) to a stationary freighter, I
expect to travel SE to get back to the island again. And I would assume
that heading NW *from* the freighter would take me even farther away
from the island, as opposed to back towards it.
And I obviously FUBAR'ed my math in my last reply. 180 degrees from 325
would be 145, not 035. Someone fire my grade school math teacher.
> Take your house, for instance. Say that you can only enter through
> your front door. Your front door may be at a bearing of 125 from your
> place of work. On the other hand, it may be at a bearing of 150 from
> the grocery store. While you can approach your front door from the
> OUTSIDE from any compass point, you can only EXIT the front door from
> one point.
So you're saying that the freighter is moving? Or do you believe that
the island is moving? Because if neither is moving, your analogy
doesn't apply, as no one has done the equivalent of traveling from the
workplace to the grocery store.
> As far as cir***navigating the globe.... why would one need to do
> that? The worse case scenario is that one would have to cir***navigate
> the island to get to the access point.
But *if* the island is stationary and *if* the freighter is stationary
and *if* a course of 325 takes you *from* the island *to* the freighter
and *if* you have to take a course of 305 to safely leave the freighter,
then you are continuing to head *away from* the island when you leave
the freighter--again, assuming that the island and the freighter haven't
moved relative to one another in the meantime.
> If your front door is on the north side of the house, and you are on
> the south side of the house, all you need to do is walk around the house
> to get to the front door.
But you've been told that it's not safe to walk around the house! You've
been told that the only safe course is one that takes you *away from*
your house. Essentially, you would have to do a 360 loop, which is why
I mentioned the cir***navigating business.
The only alternative is that these courses are critical only *within*
the "snow globe" and that, once outside of it, you can turn around and
head back *into* the snow globe and head back the way you came. But
Sayid doesn't ask anything like that. At the very least, if I were he,
I would have said, "Okay, so I have to take a course of 305 to safely
leave the freighter. But that takes me away from the island. So how
many miles do I have to go on that course before I can *turn around* and
safely head back *to* the island?"
> Of course, you house isn't invisible, so you know exactly where the
> walls are to avoid them...
Look at it this way. Say your front door is on the north side of your
house, and you're told that the only way you can safely approach or
leave your house is via the front door. So one day, you go out and
visit a friend who lives to the north of you. And when you're done
visiting with your friend, he tells you that the only safe route back
home is for you to walk north.
What do you do?
--
Jim Gysin
Waukesha, WI
|
