I was watching something last night about the earth’s magnetic field and how it affects things like compasses. No biggie there. It then went on to give an example citing pilots and aircraft navigation.
That’s when I suddenly had a flashback to discussing this on ZKF back when I had not long joined. I had asked about the earth’s tilt and wobble and if it would have any bearing on the angle that Mag North was being worked out at. I think I was satisfied that the answer was likely no. One thing that does though is the shape of the magnetic field but more specifically your location in relation to it.
The thing that struck me though was purpose, as they explained why mag north was relevant in the examples because it affected navigation but not only in the context of finding somewhere or something but also in the context of being able to do that whilst moving.
So with that context in mind, why did Zodiac use the Mag North instruction? Is there a practical purpose to and if so how would that work with what we have which is a map and a cipher?
Just a thought.
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
From what I understand Magnetic north does move over time and the angle of declination can be different depending where on earth you are. That said, it would not have a bearing (pardon the pun) in the timeframe/context of the instructions.
I’ve always thought of it as a chicken and egg thing…which came first Mt. Diablo or the bomb site? Not that I ever believed there was a bomb but I do believe there probably was a location. I think his use of Mt diablo had nothing more to do with the case other than the name "Devil" and the aura Z was building…Halloween…Unlucky 13 etc.
In any case to your question…..would it need to be anything other than him using a compass and attempting to align a suitable site(chosen location) with Mt Diablo? Perhaps the 17 degrees made the difference and it could just as easily been the other way around, had it suited his purpose.
Mike Cole had a good piece on this once upon a time:-
Mike Cole had a good piece on this once upon a time:-
Thanks Wier. That analysis was new to me.
I agree with Mr. Cole’s premise in that Zodiac never seemed to be hinting he was into astrology. I’d guess mathematics was his forte with a chance of being former military. The heavy-set descriptions of Zodiac don’t sound like he was current-military at the time of the killings nor does the lumbering gait.
When in doubt, don’t.
I have a feeling that Zodiac just meant "take out your compass and go north", but didn’t know or care what the actual location in degrees was or accounted for it’s shift.
The main reason I think that is because if it was so important to him to get that exact location, that he in fact calculated the magnetic north in correlation to whatever his map pointed to, then he would have reflected that on the map itself instead of telling us to do it. In other words he says to set to mag. north, but he himself didn’t draw that, he just drew it sort of pointing towards north on the map.
Good thoughts Guys.
“I don’t know Chief, he’s very smart or very dumb.“
