The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-09-29
YACHTING AND MATHEMATICS.

The first of the international races be-
tween the yigsIant and the yalkyrie Is set
for next Thursday. An Eastern exchanges,
4 in specializing over the probable result Of
these races. gives the following interesting
information:
These are the days when close caicula-
tons as 20 the speed OF the yachts that
have competed for the honor Of defending
the Americas cup are extremely interest
ing The results may not always be salts
factory and We may not obtain any data
upon which 70 base calculation as 10 how
much the Tigilant viii beat the Nalkyrie
or be beaten by her: but nevertheless those
who are interested IN the great question OF
yachting supremacy viii not cease 10
measure the abilities of our yachts till the
famous cup il once more under key IN the
New York Yacht Clubs locker or on its
way back 20 Britain.
some OF the questions most frequently
asked Isl What - the actual speed Of the
yigigans Tor Colonia. a. the case may bel
through the water7 The inquirer has
seen. for instance, that in the first race the
Eigilant beat fifteen miles to windward ia
two hours eighteen minutes and q fraction:
but he Is possibly too indolent to compute
for himself her actual speed. The simplest
and most accurate way TO work these
are thus obtained with very little labor.
The question OF the hourly rate of speed Is
one OF simple proportion, or rule OF three.
We have already shown in these columns
that IN beating fifieen miles to windward
the yigiiant sails across 1905 miles OF
water. 0mitting the small fractions the
question becomes this: Ii she sails
eighteen miles in 13s minutes how much
does she sail in sixty minutes?
ia f4S
minutes are TO IL mites so are 60 minutes
TO the required number. Add the loga-
rithms OF Is and 60-i 25527 and L71sl5--
and subtract that of 135-2 1851 The re-
mainder Is G. 1886, the logarithm of 7.s2
The yacht, therefore, made 7.S2 miles an
hour. The application Of this method 70
the Colonia's run of the wind in the same
race shows that IL was remarkably fine,
the result obtained being u rs knots an
hour. This Is fast going for q sailing
yacht.
In the light breeze Of Saturday, how
ever, the Nigliant attained speed which
in the circumstances is more remarkable.
On the second leg of the course, with the
wind little abaft the beam, she made ten
miles in hour minutes and 55 seconds.
Calling IL an even IS minutes, the pro-
portion becomes this As IS is to 10 so is
90 10 the result. Add the logarithm Of 10.
which Is 10000. TO that OF 90, which is
177sla. ard abstract that of s. which is
i.si29l. and you get 0.9652f, the logarithm
of 92S. So we find that she made 8. %
knots an hour. That 10 splendid travel
Ing in light breeze.
I'VE must remember, however. that in
the Town Prize race at Cowes early last
month the Satanita in q strong breeze
covered fifty miles in 3 hours AZ minutes
and Is seconds. Dropping the odd quarter
of a minute. the calculation shows that
her hourly speed was 1857 knots. This is
the best time on record in yacht race. 1t
was made over course that enabled the
yachts TO have the wind abeam most OF
the time. We may console ourselves in
two ways: First. by hoping that our
yachts would do as well under similar con-
ditions; second, by remembering that the
talkyrie was not the winner"