User talk:SpeedBrat

February 2013
Hello, I'm Hike395. Your recent edit to the page General Sherman (tree) appears to have added incorrect information, so I have removed it for now. The previous coordinates were supplied by the USGS, see. If you believe the information was correct, please cite a reliable source or discuss your change on the article's talk page. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. —hike395 (talk) 12:40, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Hello Hike395. I'm Aris2teles(talk) 22:01, 13 February 2013 (UTC) a Norwegian highschool teacher in Physics, Math and Geography (and obviously not English I'm afraid...). I edited the coordinates for General Sherman (tree), because I recognized the tree from both Google Maps and Google Earth satellite photos. I've been visiting Sequoia NP and Sherman a couple of times, and I found it quite easy to see that the coordinates as they appear on these satellite photos are giving the impression that General Sherman is located about 108 m NW from the position given by USGS. If you zoom close to the ground on Google Maps/Earth, you will recognize the asphalted path around General Sherman with the "square" to the south of the tree where tourists stop to take their pictures of the giant with themselves in front. There are two possible explanations for the error: 1. Google have put their layers a bit skewed in this very local area, which I find unlikely, since I checked 3 other nearby places (Moro Rock, General Grant and Wuksachi Village) and they are all very precise. 2. The coordinates for General Sherman given by USGS are not accurate, because they do not have maps or photos with the up-to-date optical resolution Google are providing us with.(Or maybe USGS do not know what the tree looks like from above/they don't really care (!)) Unfortunately I'm not able to find any other sources I could site on this matter, except http://wikimapia.org/5024510/The-General-Sherman-Tree which are giving the coordinates |(36|34|54|N|118|45|04|W) which are about 28 m to the east of General Sherman. I will instead ask you to check the coordinates that I've found (36|34|54|N|118|45|05) to be convinced these are the correct ones - at least it will appear so for the users of Google Maps or -Earth which may be the best for the users of Wikipedia. Thank you. Aris2teles (talk) 22:01, 13 February 2013 (UTC)