In tandem

Means one in front of another, as opposed to side-by-side. It comes from a tandem harness with two horses pulling with one in front of the other. So technically no matter how many people you put on a bike, if they are in a straight line, they are still in tandem. As opposed to a bike where you sit side-by-side, also known as a sociable.

I had to check this one out as on Friday I’m doing a somewhat crazy cycle on a home-made 6-man bike (all sitting in tandem) from London to Amsterdam for a great cause - KEEN London who provide one-to-one sports for children with special needs. Any donation you can make will make a huge difference to a small organisation. With just one day left, please donate here if you can

Published 24 Sep 2014

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It might seem straightforward to pull out a map and measure the distance between two distant points, however, the larger the distance the bigger the distortion caused by traveling on the curved surface of the Earth as opposed to flat 2D space. So while the distance you measure to your neighbouring town won't be too bad, if you're measuring between London and Rio the curvature of the Earth will make a big difference to the distance that you'll travel. To help figure out the correct distance there's the haversine formula. The haversine formula allows you to calculate the shortest distance between two points on a sphere using their latitudes and longitudes — this will be the arc between them on the great circle that includes both points. A great circle is a circle on a sphere with the same centre as the sphere, like the Equator. The haversine formula isn't perfect in practice, as Earth isn't a perfect sphere — see the 3 tallest mountains. It was invented around two hundred years ago, together with tables to speed any calculations, to help sailors navigate. Also see, the Mercator projection …It might seem straightforward to pull out a map and measure the distance between two distant points, however, the larger the distance the bigger the distortion caused by traveling on the curved surface of the Earth as opposed to flat 2D space. So while the distance you measure to your neighbouring town won't be too bad, if you're measuring between London and Rio the curvature of the Earth will make a big difference to the distance that you'll travel. To help figure out the correct distance there's the haversine formula. The haversine formula allows you to calculate the shortest distance between two points on a sphere using their latitudes and longitudes — this will be the arc between them on the great circle that includes both points. A great circle is a circle on a sphere with the same centre as the sphere, like the Equator. The haversine formula isn't perfect in practice, as Earth isn't a perfect sphere — see the 3 tallest mountains. It was invented around two hundred years ago, together with tables to speed any calculations, to help sailors navigate. Also see, the Mercator projection

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