The Region of Collision

Extract

Captain Wylie's paper on ‘The Region of Collision’ raises some interesting points but if one accepts the view that graphing of some sort is not wholly ‘academic’ the writer feels that there is an alternative graph which Captain Wylie has not mentioned and is worth considering.

As Captain Wylie has shown, the time-distance plot gives very little useful information except that it does keep prominently in mind the distance between the two vessels. The time-bearing plot is much more informative as to the element of danger present in the situation but if the time-bearing is the only plot kept then the fact that it shows no distance between the vessels is a serious disadvantage. The writer suggests that it might be worthwhile considering the advantages of plotting change of bearing against distance between the vessels, especially if this is done on a graph having precomputed curves for various minimum separations between the vessels. The sort of graph obtained is illustrated in Fig. 1 which shows a family of curves for vessels maintaining steady courses and passing at minimum separations of ½, 1 and 1½ miles, curves A, B and C respectively, on the assumption that plotting is begun from the point where the vessels are four miles apart.