Amazing Precision!

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Strictly Surveying

Last Post by bill93 8 years ago

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bill-c

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I've known about this sign for probably more than 10 years. I drove by it again yesterday and had to make a photo. It's on Bolton Rd in Lancaster, MA, just west of the crossing of the Nashua River, and east of a railroad underpass (Pan Am Railways' Worcester Main, originally the Worcester and Nashua Railroad in 1845).

I guess someone was trying to be accommodating to our Canadian visitors by including a metric equivalent, and their calculator just happened to be set to display four digits to the right of the decimal point. In the second photo, note that the sign right at the underpass refines the precision of the US customary value, but still...?ÿ?????ÿ

Attachment : IMG_0978.jpg

Attachment : IMG_0979.jpg

?ÿ

Posted : January 14, 2019 9:07 am

lee-d

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So which is it, 3.3528m or 11'?? They're off by 0.000022'.

Posted : January 14, 2019 3:25 pm

peter-lothian

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I don't think that 0.000022' is going to matter much to the top layer of chickens "...stacked up thirteen-nine."

Posted : January 14, 2019 3:27 pm

bill93

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Posted by: Lee D

So which is it, 3.3528m or 11'?? They're off by 0.000022'.

You are using US Survey Feet.?ÿ The people who ordered the sign used International Feet, so they are spot on.?ÿ

I suppose if it was for the convenience of travelers from other countries, that would be the right approach, but NGS does all elevations in US Survey feet regardless of what each state uses for SPC coordinates, so I really think they should have done that here. ?????ÿ

Posted : January 14, 2019 3:40 pm

bill93

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