Re: Steepest train/tram line

[G.Lambert@unsw.edu.au (Geoff Lambert)]

"Jeff B. Kurland" <kurlandj@erols.com> wrote:


>David Johnson wrote in message <366A7C0C.C49FAF33@ozemail.com.au>...

>I'm a little confused.  Does the xx of  1 in xx represent the horizontal
>distance or the distance traveled (length of rail used).  In other
>words, if we imagined a certain steep hill as a 3:4:5 right triangle, 4
>being the horizontal distance, 3 being the vertical distance, and 5
>being the distance traveled, would it be called 1 in 1.66  (3 vertical
>in (5 distance/3 vertical)) or 1 in 1.33 (3 vertical in (4 horizontal/3
>vertical)) ?

The former, strictly speaking.  But the two distances are so close for
all reasonable grades, that it doesn't really matter.  See my earlier
post regarding the equivalence of sin(theta), tan(theta) and theta.

Geoff Lambert