On 22/08/2020 22:00, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sat, 22 Aug 2020 20:53:08 +0100, "Jim GM4 DHJ ..."
wrote:

On 22/08/2020 20:46, Jim GM4 DHJ ... wrote:
On 22/08/2020 20:04, NY wrote:
"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
I can understand the problem of circular calibration, but I'd never
have
been able to discover or even guess what it was from the phrase,
assuming I
hadn't already heard of it.

I've been familiar with the phrase for many decades. At some time in
the past I wanted to be able to link to it on occasions such as this,
so did a Google search but don't now remember the search terms. I
saved the link in my 'favourites' list.

Despite doing physics to A level and then elec eng at university, I've
never heard of it before today, either by name or as a story, though
I've heard many times of circular calibration.

The sea captain and watchmaker could also be an example of a
systematic error getting gradually worse. If the watchmaker is
accurate and the sea captain takes a couple of seconds to adjust his
clock in sync, that error (plus a similar error on the watchmaker's
part when he syncs to the captain's time) will affect the watchmaker's
new time - and so on repeatedly.
somebody else was involved as well...a third party
some sort of weather station I think ....who spilled the beans

Are you thinking of this version https://tinyurl.com/y6459kdn
(Reference 11, bottom of second column)? There are probably several
variants of the story.

That's the baby...thanks......