Why?

T

tillergirl

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This is barely boaty but I have just changed cars and got an Audi. The rear-view mirror includes a digital compass which shows eight points of the compass.

Umm. What's this for?

There is an activation process and a compass calibration zone and a process that requires me to press button A until the letter Z appears followed by a number for the magnetic field appears in the right hand corner of the mirror. This will then tell me whether I'm in Ireland, England (including a place called Scotland), central western Europe etc etc until some diddly squit place in the Artic Circle. Thereafter after I've driven at 10 km/h for a while it will display the compass direction as I drive!

I think I've lost the will to live. What's the point of it all?
 
Originally they installed a homing pigeon, but that is the German advanced version. In the boot is a plastic duck (see recent posts) with a magnetic beak, attached to sensors. To ensure that the duck can work properly as the car goes round corners, it is suspended from a square piece of wood, by hydraulically damped coiled wires.

Audi call it the Four-spring Duck technique.
 
Sorry to inject reality, but it was the Brits that came up with the idea of putting pigeons inside missiles to guide them to the target by pecking on an optical image of the target (after training in the lab with pictures)

Really!
 
[ QUOTE ]
was that the Exopeck missile?

[/ QUOTE ]
No a bigger version of the Sea Sparrow

Sea Sparrow was developed from the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile as a lightweight "point defense" weapon that could be retrofitted to existing ships, often in place of existing gun-based anti-aircraft weapons. Sea Pigeon was developed for the US navy with a homing device that could be blamed for any 'friendy fire' incidents that could be retrofitted to existing US ships, often in place of intelligence and ability found int he Royal Navy.
 
Sarabande, please issue a warning before post like that...

There is now coffee all over my keyboard from choking with laughter, and my colleagues are giving me odd looks as I snigger at the screen...
 
Very good.....

Halycon: it doesn't read down quick enough for a depreciation counter!

My wife said last night that perhaps we should have bought a bigger boat instead! I think that's grounds for .....
 
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