Letter From The Editor

True North | Winter 2021

Math is Our Happy Place

A few years ago, while wandering through an open market I stumbled across a rack of novelty socks. I bought a pair for my wife as a stocking stuffer that read, “The two things I hate most in life are math.” It’s amusing for me to reflect from time to time that there are people who live in dread of being confronted with decisions involving math on a daily basis. Recently, CNN correspondent Bill Weir ‘came out’ as one such person. Bill is in his comfort zone dangling from helicopters over open volcanoes and reporting from his mountain bike while cycling through forest fires. He’s a beast by any other measure. Yet, during the 2020 presidential election, as he stood outside a polling station in Phoenix, Arizona with a calculator and scraps of paper and the cameras rolling… he choked. He looked at the camera and admitted, “This is my biggest fear in life. Trying to make sense of numbers in front of an audience.” He was quickly spared further embarrassment when the station’s news anchor took over. There was Bill, beads of sweat appearing above his COVID mask, shoulders slumping, wishing in futility that he was anywhere else in the world. In his mind he had retreated to his happy place, leaning into Katrina with a wall of water rushing towards him.

If you are reading this newsletter, you are a math person. You understand the beauty, precision, and dependability of the numbers. Sure, they can disappoint but not because they are wrong, more likely because we have misinterpreted them, or we’ve misjudged the events that have led to their conclusions. But when we harness the math by lining the equations up in an algorithm, and then string those algorithms together…oh, baby – the results can be jaw dropping. Elegant even.

Just such algorithms have never been on better display than in Peter Afshar’s article on the technology behind Trimble’s new R12i receiver. In particular, the full unveiling of the power of the new ProPoint RTK engine and the powerful L5 frequency enhancements that allow us to survey under tree canopy - the holy grail for GNSS surveying. I know you will enjoy this article. The sister article to this one is Ryan Zinck’s piece on the Trimble TIP technology (measure with the pole out of plumb) in the same receiver. The Trimble TIP technology allows users to accurately mark and measure points in areas previously inaccessible for GNSS rovers such as building corners, or in hazardous situations, for example the edge of an open excavation.

You will be in your happy place with these two articles.

My wife said to me once that if I go first, she’s going to have “Time and Distance” engraved on my headstone. Numbers and calculations are that much a part of my life. My reply was that I had already thought of that and what I would like is this: “From tape to tape, an epoch well-lived”

Have an accurate winter everyone, and thanks so much for your support of Cansel!

Pat Hills
Editor and Director Technical Marketing, Geospatial
Cansel