(SNIP):
What we've got now works, so why change?
I don't think it can be done.
Why change? I'm not suggesting we change. I'm suggesting we not sit
back and not explore, that's all. And if there's reason to change,
maybe it's the hassle of finding volunteers at the events to lay down
the wires, pick up the wires, replace and repair the wires, hook up the
wires, etc. It'll take volunteer time to hook up the remote units, to
position things correctly, to clean up the units -- so maybe the whole
issue of less work for the set-up/tear-down crews is a moot point.
So why change? If we get accuracy and simplicity and
cost-effectiveness that's acceptable to us now, why change? Good
question. So exactly how accurately placed are the lights? Can
someone here give me hard data -- not just that they're installed
approximately at locations designated by a registered surveyor? If
we're reporting times down to the hundred-thousandth of a second --
let's see, at 200 mph that comes out to 35 thousandths of an inch per
hundred-thousandth of a second. Are the lights really positioned to
within a spark plug gap of where the surveyor said they should be? If
so, are they put back that accurately after a spinner takes out one of
'em? If we're going to argue that we must have precise accuracy --
let's first identify that we really are using that accuracy. Are the
lights placed within thousandths of an inch -- or with an inch? Did we
ever have the surveyor come back and measure where we put the lights?
Do we have the lights re-certified (as being in exactly the correct
spot) every time they're moved? Every morning, in case wind might have
moved them a tad during the night (during a gusty day, for that matter)?
The above paragraph is meant to deflect some of the arguments I've seen
offered that things such as atmospheric effects will prove deleterious
to accuracy. My conceived system wouldn't be affected by atmospheric
delays, anyway, but I needed to challenge the point so it can be
discarded. Let's get to real problems.
Why change? Because a better way exists, that's why, and all we have
to do is find that better way.
End is coming, hang on, folks.
Jon Wennerberg
Seldom Seen Slim Land Speed Racing
Marquette, Michigan
(that's 'way up north)
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