quadrant question?

Question

please help

what problems would develop when using quadrant in the sea?

since the quadrant is not a precise instrument, what errors would occur when sighting stars?

Answer 1

It's important to point out that precision and accuracy are NOT the same thing. Something can be extremely precise and still be totally inaccurate. The opposite is always true. A lot of high school science textbooks devote a whole section to that very distinction.

Imagine a player throwing darts, trying to score a bullseye. Accuracy can be thought of as each dart's proximity to the bullseye. Precision would be each darts proximity to the other darts. If the player throws the darts all within 6 inches of the bullseye, but spread out so that they're not very close to eachother, he's more accurate than if he throws all of the darts within a one square inch area barely on the edge of the dart board. Only if the player throws all three darts in a tight group AND close to the bullseye is he precise and accurate.

That being said... A quadrant not being a precise instrument means that measurements would be more spread out than if you were to use something more precise. The questions mentions nothing of the quadrant's accuracy. Assuming that the quadrant IS accurate, taking the average of a large number of measurements would yield the closest thing available to an accurate measurement.

As to the actual errors, you'd do best to do a google or wikipedia search on the history of the quadrant as a maritime tool.

Answer 2

The first poster doesn't know the difference between precision and accuracy.

You can be precise and not accurate.
You can be accurate and not precise.
You can be neither and you could be both.

In any case, a quadrant mapped the sky using a sighting device to map the stars.

The ocean is constantly in motion, so your initial position may not be the same when you go sight the star in again. You have to account for drifting of the ocean. Also, the same stars are not visible in the southern hemisphere as the northern hemisphere. For a sailor used to mapping in the north, a trip south could be very disorienting.

Regards,

Mysstere

Answer 3

Since it is not percise it is not accurate. Since it is not accurate you could not find you exact position. Then you would become lost.