Gradients

This happened to me about 10 years ago. The local newspapershop changed hands and when the monthly bill came along it was undercharged by a few pounds.

I went in to point this out, and they assured me it was correct.

I explained where it was wrong and why it was wrong and said in passing that I was sure that they didn't want to go out of business :-)

So, I paid the sum demanded, and they closed my account there and then, refusing to serve me in the future (which was odd, because I was only endeavouring to ensure that they did not lose money at my expense!)

Two months later, they went out of business.

Also, I've been in circumstances where the VAT (UK form of sales tax) charged was at the rate for deduction instead of at the rate for adding on.

Do the roads at the top have the same names as their "continuation" at the bottom?

I once had an argument with a shop assistant in Guernsey who couldn't understand the difference between 9 French francs to the pound, and 9 pence to the franc (yes, it was a long time ago).

Now you are swapping between surveyor and mathematician! As it is a road one has to assume the measurement of unit height change in surface distance travelled. This therefore limits the ratio to 1:1 max because that is a vertical movement. Port Angeles in Washington State has a similar problem with a series of horizontal(ish) parallel hillside roads half of which are interrupted by a canyon/gorge or as the french and west of England have it - a Coombe. It demands quite a detour to pick up the other side which is clearly in view but not very evident on a map.

It's the same in San Francsico, which has cable cars and trolleybuses to negotiate the steep hills.

Where a gradient would be too steep, one solution is to build a tunnel (Broadway), another is to build the road in a zig-zag (Lombard Street).

Where the gradient on a straight grid section is very severe, only right- angle parking is allowed, and the sidewalk is in the form of steps. On less severe gradients, it is compulsory to park with your front wheels blocked against the curb/kerb. Most of the steeper streets are one-way.

Pittsburgh also has steep hills and tunnels; it has an irregular grid system broken up by hills and valleys. A section of I75 west of the city has reduced-speed sections due to sharp curves and gradients.

Shop assistants, bus conductors, etc. used to count out your change in increasing order of denomination. Now the register tells them the change and they count it out in decreasing value and dump the whole lot in your hand. They don't have to remember (or forget) prices with everything bar coded and scanned, except maybe in local corner shops. The Dollar Store didn't use to bother with bar codes as everything was the same price, but now they've had to expand their price range up to $2.

I doubt Lombard Street was always a zig-zag. It looks if it was just an extremely steep street in which the built a one-way zig-zag afterwards.

Maybe it was. Filbert Street at Hyde Street, 2 blocks south, has signs reading "Steep grade ahead. Trucks and buses not advised."

Not prohibited, just not advised. After all, this is California.

Yes they do! The town plan was actually drawn up in the UK (original available for view at the Collingwood museum) at the time when Collingwood was mooted as NZ's capital. It is actually more central than Wellington.

Don't you have vertical cliffs in the UK? The "White Cliffs of Dover" look close in the photos I've seen!

Greg.P.

Yes, but there's only (obRailway) a railway at the bottom, no roads !

Nick

I wasn't suggesting the roads/streets in Collingwood actually negotiated the cliff, but they are there top and bottom and the original planner obviously assumed flat ground.

Greg.P.

As if on clue ...