Easiest way find percentage of a hill?

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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The Samsung Galaxy uses the LSM330DLC gyro sensor. It plots a point on 3D axes with a maximum of over 1000 points in each direction, so it has a resolution in each direction of over 2000 on each of the three axes. It then mathematically converts those three coordinates into an angle relative to each axis.

I read that it's a 16 bit device, but I don't know how that relates to angles.

You need to get modern and forget your dinosaur methods.
Thanks for the explanation, and EddiePJ has illustrated the accuracy. Handy if one is changing territory regularly, but on my routes I'm happy with the once-only cheap and precise method I've used.

As previously said, I'd have a smartphone if I had the regular use for one and any phone signal in my area and the one other area I stay at occasionally. But since I can't use any mobile phone in those two areas and as a retired person have little other use for one, I'm not going to bother. I do have a simple mobile phone for emergency use when travelling far from home, but it lives switched off at all other times and it's batteries get charged quarterly!
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martin@onbike

Official Trade Member
Don't feel bad Flecc, I don't have one either.
When I try and use them my Wife ends up rolling around laughing at me trying to "Swipe" the screen....
Mind you, I still have a Bakelite styled phone in the house too that I insist people call me on if they want to talk to me.
Buttons and keys I'm fine with, it's all this touch screen stuff I can't get my head around:)
 
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neptune

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 30, 2012
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I can see where you are coming from Mike. There is definitely some merit in the fact that the Metric system is all based on ten, making calculations easier. Contrast that with our old Imperial method of measuring liquid capacity.
4 gills = one pint
2 pints = one quart
4 Quarts = one gallon
2 gallons = one Peck
4 Pecks -= one Bushel
8 Bushels= one Quarter.
Incidentally, I never did work out that "Quarter" bit. A quarter of what exactly?
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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Don't feel bad Flecc, I don't have one either.
When I try and use them my Wife ends up rolling around laughing at me trying to "Swipe" the screen....
Mind you, I still have a Bakelite styled phone in the house too that I insist people call me on if they want to talk to me.
Buttons and keys I'm fine with, it's all this touch screen stuff I can't get my head around:)
Thanks Martin, but I like state of the art when I have a use for it. My computer I use much more for other interests than this forum and it's as good as it gets for general use, Intel I7 3.6 gb processor, all solid state hard drives and a high speed broadband connection that's rarely as low as 60 mb and exceeds 85 mb at times, fast is not the word! In front of me is a 65" 4K TV with additional white pixels screen and magnetic fluid speakers, and my lighting and heating throughout my home is remote controlled from multiple points.

They serve me well, but I really don't have any sensible use for a smartphone.
 

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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In spite of it being French, I can't help but love the metric system.
In mathematics and science it's pretty much ideal.

The problem is that being based on an arbitrary standard it simply doesn't suit many ordinary day to day uses. Judging or quoting a person's height in centimetres is very inferior to the single numbers of feet and inches, the expression a 183er doesn't quite cut it in the way that a six footer does.

And try making a cake for the family using a kilo of flour. You'd need to have a lot of kids or invite the neighbours in, even if your oven could accept it for baking.

Also litres are a nuisance for vehicle fuel, far too small compared with gallons in filling up, assessing cost and expressing economy. That's why almost everyone in the UK still uses mpg and mph.

Prior to metrication I routinely used both systems, metric in my working field and Imperial in general life, and that was pretty much ideal. The strength of Imperial is that it was built on actual human experience, and that is metric's failure, it wasn't.
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Alan Quay

Esteemed Pedelecer
Dec 4, 2012
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In mathematics and science it's pretty much ideal.

The problem is that being based on an arbitrary standard it simply doesn't suit many ordinary day to day uses. Judging or quoting a person's height in centimetres is very inferior to the single numbers of feet and inches, the expression a 183er doesn't quite cut it in the way that a six footer does.

And try making a cake for the family using a kilo of flour. You'd need to have a lot of kids or invite the neighbours in, even if your oven could accept it for baking.

Also litres are a nuisance for vehicle fuel, far too small compared with gallons in filling up, assessing cost and expressing economy. That's why almost everyone in the UK still uses mpg and mph.

Prior to metrication I routinely used both systems, metric in my working field and Imperial in general life, and that was pretty much ideal. The strength of Imperial is that it was built on actual human experience, and that is metric's failure, it wasn't.
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I agree with you generally, but whenever this discussion comes up I'm amazed by people's ignorance of the metric system. (not yours, or any one else here BTW).

I sat in a meeting the other day, and a well respected engineer told me that we could not use l/s (litres per second) to measure flow as it could not deal with big enough numbers! He suggested that we use l/s for the chemical dosing, m3/hour for inlet flow, and MLD (mega litres per day) for the outlet.

Since time is not decimal, mixing units means that no one has a clue how one relates to the other (a bit like the old days pre decimal).

My suggestion of using si units to measure flow (eg ml/s, l/s, kl/s, Ml/s) was treated as rantings of a madman!
 
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jackhandy

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 20, 2012
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Sounds quite rational compared to some of the suggestions we used to get when planning a new process in the pilot plant for the clay company :oops:
 

Kinninvie

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 5, 2013
907
415
Teesdale,England
I can see where you are coming from Mike. There is definitely some merit in the fact that the Metric system is all based on ten, making calculations easier. Contrast that with our old Imperial method of measuring liquid capacity.
4 gills = one pint
2 pints = one quart
4 Quarts = one gallon
2 gallons = one Peck
4 Pecks -= one Bushel
8 Bushels= one Quarter.
Incidentally, I never did work out that "Quarter" bit. A quarter of what exactly?
You are confusing liquid and dry measures.
Pecks and Bushels are dry measures(volume)

Of course if you are Scottish its
4 gills= 1 mutchkin
2 mutchkins= 1 chopin
2 chopin= 1 pint
8 pints= 1 gallon
AND,to really confuse things 1 Scottish gallon = 3 Imperial gallons!

Oh,and a quarter is a quarter of a chaldron.
 
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NZgeek

Pedelecer
Jun 11, 2013
116
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Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand
Thanks Martin, but I like state of the art when I have a use for it. My computer I use much more for other interests than this forum and it's as good as it gets for general use, Intel I7 3.6 gb processor, all solid state hard drives and a high speed broadband connection that's rarely as low as 60 mb and exceeds 85 mb at times, fast is not the word! In front of me is a 65" 4K TV with additional white pixels screen and magnetic fluid speakers, and my lighting and heating throughout my home is remote controlled from multiple points.

They serve me well, but I really don't have any sensible use for a smartphone.
You could use your smart phone to control the TV, sound, heating and ventialtion.....;)

I have a smart(ish)phone that is JUST used as a media centre remote controller... and my TV isn't connected to the outside world, is 12 years old, and CRT o_O My phone is WAY smarter than it!

I can see where you are coming from Mike. There is definitely some merit in the fact that the Metric system is all based on ten, making calculations easier. Contrast that with our old Imperial method of measuring liquid capacity.
4 gills = one pint
2 pints = one quart
4 Quarts = one gallon
2 gallons = one Peck
4 Pecks -= one Bushel
8 Bushels= one Quarter.
Incidentally, I never did work out that "Quarter" bit. A quarter of what exactly?
I found this accidently one day (it's done a bit rudely, but the illustration is exactly why I understand Metric better):



We have a 1929 Ford Model A. When I'm under it fixing something, and ask for a spanner, Dad (66 YO and owns a whitworth socket and spanner set amonst other things!) asks what size, I reply in mm based on what it looks like, he finds a random imperial spanner passes it to me, I try it, it doesn't fit, I say a bit bigger, and he stands in front of the tool box looking for one that "looks" a bit bigger, because working out the next size up in fractional inches is painful (is the next size up 9/16ths, or 153/274ths????). Going from a 14mm to a 15mm, 16mm or 17mm is WAY easier. Most of us can count :D

Don't even get me started on Farenheit!o_O
 

JohnCade

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May 16, 2014
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The only reason I have a mobile phone is for emergencies when I'm out and it is almost never switched on. The idea of being available at all times for someone to witter on at me, or to walk down the street not looking where I'm going and texting, or looking a a vid as I walk like the zombie twats that you have to avoid on pavements fills me with distaste.

Everyone is somewhere else now instead of where they physically are and they should try being in the here and now a bit more. I still have a toolbox full of Whitworth spanners and sockets from my old Brit bikes days too...
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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The only reason I have a mobile phone is for emergencies when I'm out and it is almost never switched on. The idea of being available at all times for someone to witter on at me, or to walk down the street not looking where I'm going and texting, or looking a a vid as I walk like the zombie twats that you have to avoid on pavements fills me with distaste.
I fully agree with every word. Zombies is very apt.
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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You could use your smart phone to control the TV, sound, heating and ventialtion.....;)
But then I'd have to carry it around everywhere indoors, hardly convenient. I have remote control of heating and lighting from each of my two main armchairs, my computer stand, diner, kitchen, bathroom and bedside table, without carrying anything around with me. And TV and ancillaries remote control is only needed from the seat used when viewing it!
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neptune

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 30, 2012
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Boston lincs
In the above post by Kinninvie, I think his reference to the Scottish measures of mutchkins and chopins are fictitious, [but quite hilarious nevertheless]. As regards the size of the Scottish gallon, I think I would have noticed, considering how many times I filled lorry tanks up with diesel north of the border. The American gallon is a different story, however.

Just to prove however that fact can be stranger than fiction, I am reminded of a traditional drinking song called "The Barley Mow". The word mow, is not pronounced as in mow the lawn, but rhymes with plough. There are pubs throughout England called The Barley Mow. A barley mow, is simply a stack of harvested barley, in the state where the grain has yet to be separated from the straw, and of course barley is a main ingredient of beer.

The song is a cumulative song, in that every time the chorus comes round, extra bits are added on. The song proposes "health" to various sizes of drink container. The vessels referred to are
Barrel
Half barrel
gallon
half gallon
Quart pot
Pint pot
half a pint
gill pot
half a gill
quarter gill
nipperkin
"and the round bowl", sometimes sung as brown bowl
The song can be used as a drinking game, for more info Google "Barley Mow Wikipedia"..
 

Mrke

Pedelecer
Mar 15, 2013
76
15
Get the phone ap. Stick phone on your bike, and you'll soon get to recognise the steepness of hills by relating the readings to the hills you encounter. The phone's sensors are very accurate. No need for a spirit level.
I've downloaded the app thanks d8veh and look forward to giving it a try. Now what protective phone cover should I use?
 
D

Deleted member 4366

Guest
Now what protective phone cover should I use?
What about your pocket, which is what I use. If you want to know how steep a hill is, take it out and use the edge of the phone as a gun sight.

With mine, when you do the simple calibration procedure, it seems to fix the down direction to the centre of the earth, so, if you want to mount it to your bike, you only have to find somewhere flat, like your garage or living room floor, and then tilt the phone until the fore and aft (pitch) is zero, or you can leave the phone tilted on its mount, note the reading and then subtract that from any reading you get thereafter.

Let us know how you get on.
 

Kinninvie

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 5, 2013
907
415
Teesdale,England
In the above post by Kinninvie, I think his reference to the Scottish measures of mutchkins and chopins are fictitious, [but quite hilarious nevertheless]. As regards the size of the Scottish gallon, I think I would have noticed, considering how many times I filled lorry tanks up with diesel north of the border. ..
Nope
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutchkin
The mutchkin (Scottish Gaelic: mùisgein) was a Scottish unit of measurement of liquids that was in use from at least 1661, (possibly 15th century), until the late 19th century. The word was derived from mutse - a mid 15th-century Dutch measure of beer or wine.[1] A mutchkin is equivalent to 424 ml.






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallon_(Scots)
The Scots gallon was a Scottish unit of measurement of liquids that was in use from at least 1661, (possibly 15th century), until the mid 19th century. It was approximately three times larger than an Imperial gallon that was adopted in 1824.

  • A gallon is made up of eight Jougs, or Scots pints.
  • A gallon is made up of sixteen chopins.[1]
  • A Scots gallon is equivalent to 13.568 litres
 
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,213
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Hmmm, ye-es, it would involve having to wear trousers (I was going to say pants, but that's different for you guys... maybe that's an imperial thing too ;)).
That's more accurate then you probably thought, I'm often undressed between bedroom and bathroom, and there's remotes in both. I really wouldn't want to carry around a smartphone all the time, it looks rather like obsessional behaviour the way some do that. I might be naked without clothes, they're naked without their smartphone it seems.
.
 
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