This query is not really statistical, but it does involve numbers.
I am reading Simon Winchester's "The Map that Changed the World". It
concerns William Smith (1769-1839) who lived in these-here Yorkshire
parts (albeit born in Oxfordshire and buried - for reasons I cannot
fathom - in a Northampton churchyard; his wife died in York Lunatic
Asylum; his nephew was John Phillips, acclaimed of York).
For the first time I think I am BEGINNING to understand how all these
layers of multi-aceous rocks indicate the passage of time, and how
(because of the 'dip' and 'strike' - two trigonometric concepts I am
trying to get my head around), if you walk east-west across England,
you are walking BACKWARDS in time i.e. the surface soils in Bristol
are older than those in London.
Now here are the numerical questions:
1. If I dig down at right angles to the strata, I must perceive an
'equivalence' between distance and time. How many "years per metre" am
I travelling, if I cut down thus? (I acknowledge it will vary at
different depths - perhaps someone could even give me a
"speed-distance" graph showing how the "years per metre" varies at
different depths.)
2. My second question is this: if I walk west-east, say along the
south coast from Devon to Dover, how many years am I traversing per
metre travelled? (Again, there will be variations as in (1); and the
answer to (2) may be the same as that for (1) multiplied by a tan or
sin of the dip or strike.)
Thanks to any geo-helpers who can assist me on the above. And my
apologies to those who think this is an inappropriate question fro
this group.
JOHN BIBBY
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