Talk:Church Row, Hampstead

A fact from Church Row, Hampstead appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 31 August 2020 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Henry Cavendish calculated that the time difference between Church Row in Hampstead and Great Marlborough Street was 10.2 seconds?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2020/August. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Church Row, Hampstead.

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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Vincent60030 (talk) 15:21, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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... that Henry Cavendish calculated that the local time difference between Church Row in Hampstead and Great Marlborough Street was 10.2 seconds? Source: "Cavendish began these observations by stating the distance between his town house and country house: Hampstead is 182 miles or 10.2 seconds of time west of Marlborough street..." Footnote on pg. 230 of Cavendish by Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach, American Philosophical Society, 1996 [1])

ALT1:... that the feminist writer Amber Reeves gave birth to H.G. Wells's daughter while he was living at Church Row, Hampstead with his wife and two children? Source: "In August 1909 the author H.G. Wells and his wife, Jane, together with their two sons, George Philip (known as Gip) and Frank Richard, moved in to the terraced property at number 17 Church Row, Hampstead....Their move here was intended as a fresh start which came about as a result of a particularly tumultuous period in their decidedly unconventional marriage, because, immediately prior to their arrival in Hampstead - and also during their time here - the 43-year old Wells was embroiled in an affair with a 21-year old woman who, just four months after their arrival, would give birth to Wells's daughter on 31st December 1909." London Walking Tours - The former home of H.G. Wells, 17 Church Row, Hampstead)

Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/American Surety Building
Comment: I realise the "182 miles" in the ref is erroneous but is unclear what is meant here. It obviously isn't 1.82 miles as the crow files and it is much closer than 18.2 miles.

Created by No Swan So Fine (talk). Self-nominated at 13:47, 6 August 2020 (UTC).[reply]

@No Swan So Fine: article is new enough (created 1 August), plenty long enough (4618 characters), and within policy. QPQ is done. The hook is referenced and interesting. According to [2] it's 1.82 miles, but I think it's about 4 miles in reality, so it is odd. I'm not sure how 10.2 seconds converts into distance here, the conversion from 10.2s to 1.82 miles gives 642 miles/s, which isn't the speed of light or sound. It might be better to use a different hook, perhaps one about Wells. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 15:27, 7 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, I've amended it. No Swan So Fine (talk) 10:13, 19 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@No Swan So Fine: Thanks, ALT1 looks good. I actually just realised what the 10.2 seconds is referring to: it is the difference in local mean time - e.g. the difference in time for when the sun is directly above the two locations. The rough conversion calculation for this is (1.82 miles / (24901 miles * cos(51.5))) * 24*60*60 = 10.14 seconds - where 24901 miles is the circumference of the Earth, and 51.5° is the latitude. 1.82 miles is the east-west separation only, which is why it's less than the total distance. Do you want to tweak the original hook accordingly, or shall we just go with ALT1? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 12:58, 19 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This is incredible, can't believe you did the maths! I'm not sure how to reword it accordingly...Would '...calculated that the local time difference between' be accurate? Many thanks again. No Swan So Fine (talk) 14:43, 19 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I think that would be OK, it might need a link to local mean time to explain it further but that article isn't great. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 15:04, 19 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ready to go with either the original or ALT1 hooks (now the original hook has been revised). Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 13:10, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]