Discussion: Orienteering: The Four Dimensional Sport

Orienteering: The Four Dimensional Sport is how orienteering was once marketed in Canada and I think in the States, too.
Can anyone identify the four dimensions? Free entry to the next Suncoast Orienteering event (next November) for the first person who can correctly identify the four dimensions identified in the slogan.

north, east, south and west?

Family, fun, fitness ... and... friends (?)

longitude, latitude, elevation, and time

Einstein identifiied time as the 4th but some think that we have not been able to see the 4th because our brains have developed seeing only 3...kind of like orienteers in the woods...most people can't "see" us because they have never really been in the woods, that and the fact that we are so fast as to defy the laws of physics....do I win????

Seems like Daved_Waller has it essentially correct?

Orienteering is a competitive, four-dimensional sport. It takes in the
three dimensions of movement (forward, lateral, and climbing) plus the fourth
dimension, TIME.

and from the COF newsletter where that was found....

If any one of these dimensions is lacking, it becomes
Something else, not orienteering. If time is lacking, it becomes a non-
competitive exercise of simply "getting somewhere". If the need for climbing
or avoidance of obstacles such as hills, marshes etc„ - is lacking, it becomes
cross-country running, not orienteering. The essential ingredients of the sport
are that each of these dimensions has to be present, has to be a variable to some
degree determined by the individual, and it has to be competitive, THEN it is
orienteering. Other than that, it is exercise only. Orienteering is a complete
and separate type of sport experience and to maintain the excellence of this
experience, course setters should ensure that each of their courses is not just a
cross country run for their harriers'(they can do that in'their own races) not
a "240° north for 80 steps and 127° East for 200 steps" '(parking Lot problem)
nor just exercise competitive or not.. Each and every one of the courses should
include the four dimensions of the sport related to the skill of the competitors.
When properly balanced, the problems presented by the composition of those four dimensions make the sport a truly exhilarating and immensely rewarding experience for all its participants.

I guess that "thickness of vegetation" could arguably be a fifth dimension

Does Florida have elevation, though? Is it not really orienteering they do there, then, or is the definition wrong?

From yesterday, substituting "thickness of vegetation" for "elevation" would appear to be reasonable.

Ouch, WalK!
David has won himself free entry in a future Suncoast orienteering event, a prize valued at probably $10, but with a $2 discount if he is a member of a USOF orienteering club.
Linear Ice gets honourable (honorable) mention for identifying the source of the slogan. She will probably be able to tell you that the explanation 'if it ain't timed, it ain't orienteering' drew a strong response from Bjorn Kjellstrom who had a right to take issue. After all it was he who coined the word orienteering. He felt, I believe, that any activity involving navigation (preferably with a Silva compass) was a form of orienteering.
But what do you all think of the slogan? Should it be dusted off or continue to be brushed aside?

JanetT obviously has not orienteered in Florida!

But I have, Mike (1995). I remember one shallow depression.

Gord ;-)

It seems a somewhat peculiar description to me. A 4-dimensional sport, perhaps, but hardly The 4-D sport. Essentially any sport is a 4 dimensional sport as you have characterized your dimensions. In fact, since in orienteering, one is effectively constrained into running on the surface of the ground, there are only 2 independent spatial dimensions (ignoring rare cases such as a bridge, where a given x,y coordinate would allow more than one z coordinate), so orienteering could be better characterized as a 3-dimensional sport. I would have characterized hang-gliding as a more truly 4 dimensional sport than orienteering!

Similarly, I have always been a bit bothered by the characterization of orienteering as The Thinking Sport, since essentially any interactive team sport has at least as high a level of thought involved as orienteering does.

Yes, orienteering is only pseudo 3D, a bit like the first DOOM from 1993...

You are invariably restricted to traversing your world-line from start to finish. How can your life be anything but one dimensional?

Wow, from Orienteering slogans ('At one with nature' anyone?) to Original Doom and existentialism in 15 posts.

I am impressed.

Don't focus too intently on your initial boundary conditions, and even as a physicist your life can seem multidimensional.

Gord, if 4D doesn't cut it, how about the 5D sport?
You know, as in the 5 dimensions (stages) of grief. What other sport encompasses the whole 5D experience in running time? You know:
Denial - "Oh no!. Can't be the wrong control. Vetter must have screwed up. I'm sure I saw PG heading this way."
Anger - "Oh F#**&@$#@!
Bargaining - "OK, if I bail out to the road maybe I can find a relocation point"
Depression - "Man, forget the bling to-day!"
Acceptance - "Maybe PG made the same mistake, put past mistakes out-of-mind, I will just call it a training run."