The Use of Hand-held Pocket Calculators for Navigation: A Discussion

Extract

The use of hand-held pocket calculators for navigation was discussed at an open meeting of the Technical Committee held in London on 7 May 1975 with the President; G. E. Beck, in the Chair. A number of those who took part in the discussion have prepared written contributions which are printed below with the account of the meeting.

W. D. Rushworth (Directorate of Overseas Surveys, Ministry of Overseas Development): Land surveyors, unlike navigators, do not have to do instant calculations but before we leave an area we have to carry out sufficient computations to ensure there are no blunders in the observations. Overseas in developing countries this usually means a computing session in camp every evening and until a couple of years ago this was a ponderous business, using hand cranked calculators and massive books of eight figure trig. tables. For the surveyor moving on foot these items were often a real burden so that the advent of battery-operated electronic calculators was a godsend, especially once we got calculators with pushbutton trig. functions.