geographical ignorance

[kengr]

Ok, tonight I saw a really stupid mistake for the *second* time.

They had someone giving "co-ordinates" to a location. As latitude and longitude. Ok, fine. Though expecting them to have it accurate is a reach, but...

The problem is in both cases they gave it as degrees and *nothing* else. Not decimal degrees (commonly shown in GPS setup as DDD.ddddd), not as degrees, minutes and decimal minutes (DDD MM.mmmm) not as degrees, minutes and seconds (DDD MM SS.ssss)

Why is this important? Well the size of a one *minute* of longitude interval on the ground varies depending on your latitude. But a one minute interval of latitude is constant, at around a nautical mile.

A degree is *60* minutes.

So if all you are giving is something like 31 97 then the location has an uncertainty of *30 miles* north south, and and an east west variation that ranges from +/- 30 miles at the equator to zero at the poles.

So the writers on two different shows had people or places being located by co-ordinates that are about as exact as "somewhere in the New York City area".

Now, it's *possible* that the locations in the two shows were actually *at* the intersection of those lines of latitude and longitude. But that's really unlikely.

Latitude and longitude are not magic. To give useful locations you need to give them to fractions of a minute. Geocaching tends to use DDD MM.mmm That's 3 decimal places on the minutes, which, if the GPS signal co-operates will get you within a few feet of the cache.

TV writers shouldn't write stuff they aren't familiar with.

Comments

[seawasp]

As a writer, I know all too well the pitfall, and the truth of the statement: "It's not what you don't know that'll get you; it's what you do know that ain't so." Or, in order to avoid making those mistakes, you have to realize you're likely to make a mistake in that area in the first place, and decide that this is important enough to research, and then go on and do the research.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Ironically, as the Internet has made research easier (despite valid criticisms, you can find reliable sources fairly easily) people are doing less.

Verisimilitude isn't all that hard. I once had someone from New Mexico who read one of my stories set there ask how long I had lived in the state. My total time in New Mexico in my whole life is less than two days.

I used an actual, folding highway map and Google to set a few sequences in place.

Don't get me started on "cement" vs. "concrete" and "mortars rained down all around them."

[xander-opal.livejournal.com]

Note to self, write a scene involving a cargo plane dropping crates of mortars...