[Genghis the Engineer]

Somebody's enthused at me about this, and it really does seem like a good idea...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49319760

https://what3words.com


At first I thought "what the heck's wrong with lat/long", but realistically this is much more idiotproof, much more likely to get the right coordinates through a crackly phone line. Not hard to see how this can be very useful in all range of emergencies - with all that's needed is a free app on your phone.

Also just trying to meet up with friends in unfamiliar cities / airfields / bits of countryside.

The BBC article seems to say it's becoming commonplace and, as it says, "where's the downside?".

G

[Rob P]

... much more likely to get the right coordinates through a crackly phone line.

Somewhere in my back garden is refills.warned.pitchers

I've just checked refills.warmed.pictures and that's in Oregon. So at least if the crackly phone line causes a mishear it is blazingly obvious.

That said, I've had the app on my phone for a couple of years and, so far, not found a use for it.

That might be a good thing?

Rob P

[PaulB]

Yes.... I’m sure we spoke about this previously.

[johnm]

I've just had a look on this on the website and my house garage and gateway all come up with a different 3 word combination, it's amazing

[Colonel Panic]

For anywhere that doesn't have a post code it is great; my daughter is currently trying to solve a problem in Bolivia which has serious "postal address" issues, with many roads just called "Unnamed Road". w3w could well be a solution, all the more so as words can be in a wide variety of languages too.

[johnm]

For anywhere that doesn't have a post code it is great; my daughter is currently trying to solve a problem in Bolivia which has serious "postal address" issues, with many roads just called "Unnamed Road". w3w could well be a solution, all the more so as words can be in a wide variety of languages too.

Not just Bolivia, our Cotswold village has one post code for 2/3rds of it, no street names and most houses have no numbers only names and those that have numbers are based on the Cirencester Abbey Estate asset register

[lobstaboy]

So according to the BBC piece the words are assigned randomly. And the door of 10 Downing Street is
slurs.this.shark
that doesn't seem random to me!!

[Boxkite]

The search works:
viewtopic.php?p=1181127#p1181127
viewtopic.php?p=1678330#p1678330

[PaulB]

We can all find amusing word combinations for various locations, but is this system being used practically by anyone/anywhere?

[Genghis the Engineer]

We can all find amusing word combinations for various locations, but is this system being used practically by anyone/anywhere?

According to the BBC article I posted above, yes.

G

[Genghis the Engineer]

I've just had a look on this on the website and my house garage and gateway all come up with a different 3 word combination, it's amazing

On a 10ft grid, that seems how it should be, unless you have a staggeringly small house.

G

[johnm]

I've just had a look on this on the website and my house garage and gateway all come up with a different 3 word combination, it's amazing

On a 10ft grid, that seems how it should be, unless you have a staggeringly small house.

G

Well yes but a 10ft grid I find remarkable

[Genghis the Engineer]

Google tells me that the earth's surface area is 510,072,000 km2. So, 510x10e12m2.

Divide by 9 (number of square metres in a grid square) and you get 57x10e12 squares.

Take the cube root (3 words, etc.) you get 38,411. That is near as dammit 40,000.

The article claimed that they needed 40,000 words to make it work - which seems correct.

A bit of googling tells me that an average adult with English as a first language understands between 50,000 and 250,000 words.

So the maths works.

G

[kanga]

now we need a SD interface ..

[Genghis the Engineer]

It can then be incorporated into skill tests. "Right Bloggs, your destination has just declared itself closed due to an accident, and I'd like you to divert to the disused airfield at slot.civic.slave"

G