(urth) Wall of Nessus

[Jeff Wilson]

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 >