this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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(page 2) 29 comments
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[–] LostXOR@fedia.io 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Some rough calculations:

5 leagues ≈ 15 mi ≈ 24.1 km. An average human has hair that's maybe 20 cm wide. Using the small angle approximation we get an angular size of 0.2/24100 ≈ 8.3x10^-6 radians.

At 400 nm wavelength, resolving details of that angular size requires an aperture of 1.22(400 nm / 8.3x10^-6) ≈ 5.88 cm.

So either Legolas has some absolutely massive eyes, has the ability to use both his eyes for optical interferometry (I'm voting for this since it's the coolest), or is just plain magic.

[–] blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] LostXOR@fedia.io 0 points 2 weeks ago

Dang, that didn't federate to my instance. Their math seems to check out too.

[–] grubberfly@mander.xyz 0 points 2 weeks ago

didnt know old.lemmy was a thing.

Thanks !

[–] Siethron@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

There's magic in this world, it's possible elf sight is slightly magical.

[–] tpyo@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

I feel it is very important to post this here:

collapsed inline media

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

3.5 cm pupils? I've heard of "wide-eyed" but this is ridiculous!

But I never knew a "league" was 3 miles. That's like, a lotta football fields!

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