Wall of Nessus

brunians at brunians.org · 14 Jun 2010, 15:35 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: brunians at brunians.org (brunians at brunians.org)
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:35:26 -0400
Subject: (urth) Wall of Nessus
In-Reply-To: <4C1647D4.3040005 at io.com>
References: <000901cb080c$a24bd6a0$3dd14a0c@rclackey><AANLkTimNF_7phiZuvwCMYZObOBCVpmbPVbROd7kc1Hq4 at mail.gmail.com><006601cb0879$4ddd39c0$59cc4a0c@rclackey><AANLkTilLT4407kUNfZU4wY0V73RjJAk-UllkDYkyuiHT at mail.gmail.com>
	<00b101cb0b91$16331100$bacf4a0c@rclackey>
	<C04E9C844995425CA3A67B647E6007B8@jill> <4C16302C.1070907 at gmail.com>
	<4C1647D4.3040005 at io.com>
Message-ID: <3be3d7fc3d01626ccf46409c0c84aca7.squirrel at brunians.org>

We did fifty mile marches all the time in the Army.

60 would be pushing it. It wouldn't be a leisurely walk.

.


> On 6/14/2010 8:35 AM, James Wynn wrote:
>> Someone recently mentioned this quote by Severian:
>>
>> "No. I've spent my life so near the middle of the city that the Wall was
>> no more than a dark line on the northern horizon when we looked from the
>> glass-roofed room at the top of our tower. I am astounded, I admit."
>> SHADOW XXXV
>>
>> What would the radius of the city need to be for a wall of that height
>> to disappear beyond the horizon at ground level?
>
> There's a distance-to-horizon calculator here:
>
> 	http://boatsafe.com/tools/horizon.htm
>
> a 1-mile Wall would be visible for 97.8 statute miles.  Perhaps league
> has an ambiguous meaning similar to chiliad; if young Severian had been
> up late the night before units class, perhaps he misheard a league as
> three furlongs instead of three miles?  A Wall 3/8 mile tall would be
> visible for 59.9 statute miles...still too long to walk in a day.
>
> --
> Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
> IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
> < http://ieeetamut.org >
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