It's worse than you think...
> and in some circumstances it's possible for the ship's true position to be outside the cocked hat.
The actual position is most likely to be *outside* the cocked hat...
Each of those lines is a bearing to some known object, and if done carefully there is an equal chance of being to the right or to the left of the line. Being inside the cocked hat has a probability of about 1/8 to a first approximation. The size of the hat does give an indication of how good your fix is, but don't assume that you are in the middle!
[ Credit to Prof Edward Stansfield for explaining this a few years ago - his inaugural lecture at Reading University was titled something like 'In My Cocked Hat'. ]
Biting the hand that feeds IT
