|
Registered
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Linn County, Oregon
Posts: 48,886
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke
Even small lakes follow the curvature of the earth. Thinking theoretically, if one had a level capable of seeing a highway built exactly level, it would rise as a tangent to the curvature of the earth. The earth curves 7.68" per mile. So a dead level highway a 1000 miles long would be 768 feet high at the far end.
Dead level Los Angeles to Las Vegas and you could just about step out of your car at the penthouse of the MGM Grand. (not quite — 230 feet vs. the total height of the MGM at 293.)
|
A retired CPO friend once told me that the curvature is used when aiming big guns...especially battleships.
May he RIP...he had no funeral here, but had his ashes spread at sea courtesy of the USN. He'd participated in those ceremonies, wanted the same when his time came.
__________________
"Now, to put a water-cooled engine in the rear and to have a radiator in the front, that's not very intelligent."
-Ferry Porsche (PANO, Oct. '73) (I, Paul D. have loved this quote since 1973. It will remain as long as I post here.)
|