New Research into Tranter's Correction to Naismith's Rule
Michael Farthing
Important new research has recently been completed into Tranter's correction
of Naismith's Rule. The provisional findings have produced startling
results and once the Mathematics Department has fixed, sorry checked, our
statistics, we shall be publishing in an appropriate academic journal. In
the meantime we feel that the results will be of such value to the
walking community that the draft, unrefereed paper should be made available
over the internet.
New Research into Tranter's Correction for Naismith's Rule
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Michael Farthing and Timothy Hall Farthing
Summary
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Naismith (1892) proposed a rule for assessing the speed at which a walker
could comfortably cover a certain amount of ground. Tranter (1965)
proposed various corrections to this rule to allow for the individual fitness
of walkers, tiredness, weather conditions, load etc. These conclusions have
attained wide acceptance, particularly as a result of the popularisation
by Langmuir (1969). Indeed, Whittaker (1997) has even suggested that the
very process of using Tranter's correction produces an immediate improvement
in performance. We have specifically investigated the correction due to load
and have found serious inaccuracies in Tranter's original work: in particular
increased load far from reducing speed appears to have an opposite effect.
Keywords
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Naismith/Walking/Fitness/Load
Introduction
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This research was prompted by planning for the Rum Doodle Expedition and it
was decided to investigate the accuracy of Tranter's assertions about load
so that an optimal arrangement could be made for transportation to base and
higher level camps. Experimentation occured at weekends during March 1998,
leading to the conclusion that fitness increases with load, rather than
the reverse, as had previously been thought.
Material and Methods
--------------------
Several walking sessions were completed during which one of us (Michael)
(then Expedition Sirdar) acted as a walking subject. The load carried was
constantly varied during the day and the distance and height climbed were
carefully noted at each point of variation. The other of us (Timothy)
directed the variation of load so as to avoid any possibility of the
subject's inner psychological state having any effect. A problem arose
early on in the experiment as to the means whereby the unused load at any
point could be transported to its next point of use, but this was readily
solved by Timothy himself acting as the load. This had the added advantage
that it prevented the subject from cheating and failing to carry a full load
during those parts of the experiment where this was required. When not
acting as a load Timothy accompanied the subject on foot.
Results
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Three experimental sessions were carried out in various parts of the Lake
District, namely Castle Crag; Tarn Crag (Easedale) and Pike O'Blisco.
It was decided to discard one reading from the Pike O'Blisco walk as a rogue
value. The rogue was Timothy who was distracted into another of his research
interests (the effect of dropping pebbles into mountain streams).
Tranter's assertion is that one one fitness line be allowed for each 30lbs
carried. This was by good fortune very close to the weight of Timothy
himself. In fact, progress was roughly four times as fast when the load was
being carried as when not, so the correct procedure is to rise approximately
five fitness lines for each 30 lbs carried.
Acknowledgements
----------------
We would like to thank the Organising Committee of the Rum Doodle Expedition
2000-2001 for their support and encouragement in this project, but
regrettably we are unable to do so as they failed to appear on any of the
occasions when their help was requested, giving such feeble excuses as flu,
not hearing in time, swimming and packing for a trip to Morocco.
We acknowledge help from Roger Chapman who drew our attention to Naismith's
seminal paper in an article in uk.rec.walking; Christine Hall Farthing who
supplied refreshments during our experiments; and the many walkers
encountered during our work who encouraged Timothy to keep his father up
to the mark.
Michael Farthing is on secondment from cyclades and holds the post of
Archivist to the Rum Doodle Expedition. Timothy Hall Farthing holds a place
at Bolton-le-Sands Playgroup and is Leader of the Rum Doodle Expedition.
References
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Langmuir (1969) Mountain Leadership chp 6,
Scottish Sports Council
Naismith (1892) Scottish Mountain Club Journal, Vol 2
Notes and Queries
Tranter (1965) Cribbed from Langmuir. The so-and-so doesn't have
proper references
Whittaker (1997) Internet article in uk.rec.walking
--
Notified by
Michael Farthing
cyclades
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