gmf@uvacs.UUCP (04/06/84)
A geologist friend of mine wants to buy a piece of equipment for
which he only has specifications in German. In one place, they
speak of angular input and output in terms of degrees, minutes and
seconds (Grade, Minuten, Sekunden) or in "Gon-Teilung". My guess
was that this is radians, perhaps from Goniometrie (= trigonometry).
But I guess the word for radian measure is "Bogenmass".
My friend's guess was that "Gon" is an acronym for "Grad oder
Neugrad", where Neugrad refers to subdivision of a circle into
400 rather than 360 equal parts (called "grad" in English, to maximize
confusion). Can any German-speaker help us out?
Gordon Fisher (...!uvacs!gmf)