In responding to this comment, I did a lot of research and saw a few new things. So thanks for that.Pacfanweb said:GuerrillaPack said:
You can actually take a high-zoom camera and zoom in and see a ship that has disappeared from view and "gone over the curve".
Okay....no, you can't.
I'll bet you any amount from here to Rocky Mount right now. We (you and I) will go to the coast on the clearest day we can find. We will watch a ship disappear.
You provide whatever "high power" optical device you think will do the job.
And you will not be able to see the ship eventually....and when that becomes the case, we will climb up a few stories at whatever structure is nearby and you will be able to see it again for a little while, until it disappears again.
Easily proven.
The phenomena of a boat (or any other object) appearing to disappear "over the curve" when looking out over water is caused by several optical phenomena -- including limits of angular resolution of the human eye, atmospheric "lensing" or "magnification" (refraction) caused by the water vapor in the air, and mirages (reflections) that occur when looking out over the surface of the water.
Zooming in with a camera can only overcome one of those optical factors -- overcoming the limits of angular resolution of the human eye.
So, yes, by zooming in with a camera you will not always be able to make a boat or other object reappear. But you will be able to sometimes, when the conditions are right (ie, when atmospheric refraction is not the cause of the object being hidden).
Anyone who is interested in understanding all of this will need to take at least a little bit of time to do some research. And it is fascinating.
Here is a very short video demonstrating that zooming in with a camera will enable an object to reappear, by overcoming the limits of angular resolution of the human eye:
And there are many videos on YouTube demonstrating that boats that were not visible at the horizon can be made visible by zooming in with a camera, including this very short video:
And here is an extremely eye-opening video (only 4 minutes long) demonstrating the HUGE effect that atmospheric conditions and optical phenomena have on what we can see. This is time lapse footage from one day looking out over water to a shoreline only few miles away. During some parts of the day, the entire shoreline (down to the water level) is clearly visible. Then, during other parts of the day, a huge "bulge" of water rises up and blocks the view of the shoreline -- and things 20, 50, to around 100 feet in elevation above the water level on that shoreline. This is caused by atmospheric "lensing" or refraction, as well as mirages and other optical distortions/phenomena.
Really think about what is occurring due to atmospheric refraction, as shown in that video footage. If a boat were on that shoreline in the distance and was being blocked from view by that "bulge" of water, is it actually being blocked by "the curve of the earth"? No.
"Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." - John 15:19