Lynch David K
Thule Scientific, 22914 Portage Circle Drive, Topanga, California 90290, USA.
Appl Opt. 2005 Sep 20;44(27):5759-62. doi: 10.1364/ao.44.005759.
When viewed from the stern, a ship's turbulent wake appears as a narrow strip of bubble-whitened water converging toward the horizon. The wake does not reach a sharp point on the horizon but has a finite angular width, indicating that the Earth is not flat, but rather round. A simple analysis of the geometry of the observations shows that the radius of the Earth can be estimated using only simple instruments and observations.
从船尾看,船后的湍流尾迹呈现为一条狭窄的、布满气泡的白色水域带,向地平线汇聚。尾迹在地平线上并非汇聚于一个尖锐的点,而是具有一定的角宽度,这表明地球不是平的,而是圆的。对这些观测结果进行简单的几何分析表明,仅使用简单的仪器和观测数据就能估算出地球的半径。