Messages

1

Feature Requests / Re: "True" distance vs. horizontal distance

« on: November 15, 2010, 04:28:04 PM »

For tracks that have significant elevation gain/loss, it would be very nice in Profile to have the option of either determining distances purely horizontally (as is normally done) or the hypotenuse (spline, if you want to get fancier) of the grades.... Even for moderately steep tracks this option could help to alleviate discrepancies with wheeled distance and  to better represent true effort.

Referring to the above post, I am wondering how determining distances using a spline, that is, a polynomial (parametric) curve, would be better than current configurations already accounting for climb, descent, etc.  Is it a matter of precision?

With purely horizontal distance determinations, how is elevation dealt with?