Sunday, February 19, 2023

Don't fall off!

Sometimes, if the clouds are just right, it almost looks as if we lived on the very edge of a flat earth. Almost.

The view from Stories Beach.

When I was a kid standing on a cliff on the west coast of the island, Dad told me that if my eyes were sharp, I could see Japan. "Just over there! Climb up the tower!" Well, not quite. It's a third of the way around the globe at that latitude. (I learned early about Dad jokes.)
The Earth curves about 8 inches per mile. As a result, on a flat surface with your eyes 5 feet or so off the ground, the farthest edge that you can see is about 3 miles away. (Healthline)
It's about 30 km. to the shore of the mainland from this spot. And if the sky is clear, we can see the mountain tops.

ASkywatch post.

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A veces casi parece que vivimos en la mera orilla de la tierra. Casi casi. Si no fuera un globo.

Foto: la vista desde la playa Stories hacia el este.

Cuando yo era una niña en la costa del oeste de esta isla, y subía a un precipicio, me dijo mi papá que si miraba con atención, podría ver Japón. "¡Por allí está! ¡Súbete a la torre!" Pues, no. Era otro de los chistes de papá. A esa latitud, Japón queda a un tercio de la distancia alrededor del globo.

La tierra se curva aproximadamente a 8 pulgadas por milla. Como resultado, en una superficie plana con tus ojos a 5 pies aproximadamente arriba del suelo, lo más lejos que puedes ver es como a 3 millas de distancia. (Healthline)

Desde esta playa hasta la costa del continente son unos 30 km. Y si el cielo está limpio, podemos ver las cumbres de las montañas.


1 comment:

I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

Also, I have word verification on, because I found out that not only do I get spam without it, but it gets passed on to anyone commenting in that thread. Not cool!

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