Talk:Panama Canal

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Time difference

... the Panama Canal shortcut made it possible for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in half the time previously required.

— I know nothing about this topic, but I have to think the time difference would in at least some cases be considerably greater than "half." Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks. Sca (talk) 14:27, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

Isthmian Canal Commission

The Isthmian Canal Commission section is longer than the "Main article: Isthmian Canal Commission" -- it should be the other way around. ~E 74.60.29.141 (talk) 08:01, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

Height of Lake Gatun

In the first paragraph, it says: "There are locks at each end to lift ships up to Lake Gatun (85m above sea-level)...", but the diagram at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Panama_Canal_Map_EN.png says 85ft, not 85m. 85m wouldn't make much sense as a subsequent sentence says: "The current locks are 33.5m although new larger ones are proposed."

Shall the "85m" be changed to "85ft" in the article, or should it be changed to "26m"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:470:8133:10:224:36FF:FEB1:1B81 (talk) 20:03, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

I went ahead and updated it to 26m. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:470:8133:10:224:36FF:FEB1:1B81 (talk) 20:30, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Summarizing & moving text to main articles

The History and Isthmian Canal Commission sections each have main articles that are shorter than their ostensible summaries. Is there an objection to streamlining the History section and moving quality excess content to the main articles?—Matjamoe (talk) 01:29, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Good plan. Go ahead. -DePiep (talk) 11:20, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

Standard measures and directions (imperial, North)

I have started this standard over the Panama Canal pages:

• Measurements: imperial first, metric to follow. So it is 10 feet (3.0 m).

After a first full mentioning of the unit, we can abbreviate: 10 ft (3.0 m)

sigfig in {{convert}} as applicable.

These were the original units of the current canal: inches not meters.

The PCA authority published most of its reports as: "10 feet (3.0 m)" too.

In general, we at WP should be consistent, even though this choice might be arbitrary.

• Directions: When free to choose, "North" is OK for the Atlantic port of Balbao and its bearing, as the authority uses it themselves. (Actually, the general direction in the channel to Balboa is more like NW). So is "South" for "Southeast". The authority writes: "Southbound ships" from Miraflores locks etcetera.
• When describing a route, we do North-to-South (Atlantic to Pacific). That is also the way a western (English language) reader sees a map: North is the upside, looking top-to-bottom. -DePiep (talk) 19:55, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Considering that the Canal is not in the US, why would the USC units come first or why are they needed at all?

Why is the canal 82 km in the German Wikipedia and 77.1 in the English? It makes Wikipedia look even less credible when there is conflicting data? 68.105.199.216 (talk) 14:40, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

Making Ice?

The section "U.S. Panama Canal construction, 1904–14" says, "In addition, the canal used large refrigeration systems for making ice." But it is not elaborated. Is it even true? Stephanwehner (talk) 04:07, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

I don't know, that was why I was already asking for a source. The Banner talk 05:47, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

Unsourced and not plausible wrt the construction process. Better throw it out. -DePiep (talk) 13:41, 5 January 2013 (UTC)