Science Memes

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kawaiiiiiii (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 days ago (5 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.

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