How does 60csx measure distance travelled?

[+formula1]

Okay I have a question...just went on my first hiking trip with my new 60csx and it entailed a lot of ascent and descent - 2877 feet to be precise. We also logged about 6 miles doing that according to the 60csx. Now my question is, the 6 miles measurement, is that as the crow flies or does it take into account the distance traveled ascending and descending which is quite different from how the crow flies and is analogous to measuring the distance with a bike odometer rather than measuring out on a map of the area.

[+TrailGators]

Okay I have a question...just went on my first hiking trip with my new 60csx and it entailed a lot of ascent and descent - 2877 feet to be precise. We also logged about 6 miles doing that according to the 60csx. Now my question is, the 6 miles measurement, is that as the crow flies or does it take into account the distance traveled ascending and descending which is quite different from how the crow flies and is analogous to measuring the distance with a bike odometer rather than measuring out on a map of the area.

It's the 2D horizontal distance. It doesn't take into account the verticals.

[roybassist]

just went on my first hiking trip with my new 60csx and it entailed a lot of ascent and descent - 2877 feet to be precise. We also logged about 6 miles doing that according to the 60csx. Now my question is, the 6 miles measurement, is that as the crow flies or does it take into account the distance traveled ascending and descending which is quite different from how the crow flies

It isn’t nearly as different as you probably think.

 

For the sake of illustration, lets assume that you went 6 miles horizontally and gained 2877 feet in elevation on a constant (non-varying) grade. Of course your elevation gain and loss wasn’t on a constant grade, but just to keep things simple let’s look at that case.

 

6 miles = 31680 feet. So you went 31680 feet horizontal and 2877 feet vertical. You can calculate the length along the slope using the Pythagorean theorem. Slope length = square root of (horizontal dist squared + vertical dist squared). If you do the math, you’ll find it equals 31810 feet, or 6.02 miles. Hardly any difference at all.

 

The maximum difference theoretically possible would occur if you went 6 miles on perfectly level ground, then climbed or rappelled down a vertical cliff face for 2877 feet. Then the additional distance due to the vertical would be 2877 feet, or 0.53 miles. Even that would be less than 9% error.

 

Of course your actual situation wasn’t that simple. In the real world, your hike was probably much more similar the constant slope case than the vertical cliff case, and the distance error due to not including the ascent and descent would be pretty insignificant. The difference in effort involved in hiking with all that elevation change, on the other hand, was no doubt very significant!

Edited August 8, 2008 by roybassist

[+blb9556]

Okay I have a question...just went on my first hiking trip with my new 60csx and it entailed a lot of ascent and descent - 2877 feet to be precise. We also logged about 6 miles doing that according to the 60csx. Now my question is, the 6 miles measurement, is that as the crow flies or does it take into account the distance traveled ascending and descending which is quite different from how the crow flies and is analogous to measuring the distance with a bike odometer rather than measuring out on a map of the area.

It's the 2D horizontal distance. It doesn't take into account the verticals.

 

Only 2D. I have noticed that with my explorest also.