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⁨874⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨fossilesque@mander.xyz⁩ to ⁨science_memes@mander.xyz⁩

https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/66f807c3-b834-48df-93c7-2dcccbc06c7e.jpeg

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Comments

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  • rljkeimig@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    The reason Legolas can see that far is because the curvature of Earth doesn’t exist for elves. It is the same reason they can sail off into the Undying Lands without circling back around.

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    • hinterlufer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      even if you ignore curvature you have a resolution limit that depends on the aperture. Look up Rayleigh criterion for more info

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      • rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        But does it consider magic?

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      • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Except that this problem doesn’t specify distance between horseman, so I think it’s a bit bogus — no.need to resolve an individual person to be able to tell that they’re there. And for hair color, if you make assumptions about the clothes being worn, you could perhaps infer color of hair, even if the hair isn’t resolvable (a person being a “single pixel” would have a different hue depending).

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    • frezik@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Didn’t Middle Earth lore say the Earth was flat, but was made spherical later? Had that happened by then?

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      • Revan343@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Yes, but it’s not spherical for the elves, just the other races, which is why elven boats can sail to the undying lands, but human boats can’t.

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      • huf@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        the world was flat until numenor made war on the undying lands. at that point, numenor sank and the world was made round and the undying lands were placed somehow outside them, so that elves could still sail west along the straight way and get there, but everyone else just sailed west around the globe.

        later, tolkien changed his mind about a lot of this and played with it, trying to turn it into an always roundworld (scientifically accurate myth was his goal at this point) but couldnt really figure out how it’d work and he was old and then he died

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    • huf@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      no, that’s not why. it’s because elves can just see better. it’s the same reason they can walk on top of snow. they are slightly outside the laws that apply to ordinary humans. even aragorn is a hair over the line.

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    • Foofighter@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      You mean the curvature of middle earth, right? RIGHT?!

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      • Revan343@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Middle Earth is canonically our Earth, in the past

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    • pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      How would that even work? Do time zones exist for everybody but elves? As the party travelled east, did Legolas start perceiving the sun to set later than it did for everybody else?

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      • match@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        If I remember correctly, the sun is the light of Valinor, so the sun actually never sets for Legolas

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    • Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      the curvature of Earth doesn’t exist for elves

      Doesn’t it? Haven’t come across anything in Tolkien’s works that says this.

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  • e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    If anyone was looking for the exact quote its from The Two Towers, Chapter 2 “The Riders of Rohan”.

    “’Riders!’ cried Aragorn, springing to his feet. ‘Many riders on swift steeds are coming towards us!’
    “’Yes,’ said Legolas, ‘there are one hundred and five. Yellow is their hair, and bright are their spears. Their leader is very tall.’
    “Aragorn smiled. ‘Keen are the eyes of the Elves,’ he said.
    “’Nay! The riders are little more than five leagues distant,’ said Legolas.
    “’Five leagues or one,’ said Gimli; ‘we cannot escape them in this bare land. Shall we wait for them here or go on our way?’

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    • vrojak@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      So 5 leagues wasn’t even the limit for him, he could have discerned their hair color at an even greater distance.

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      • Klear@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        I like the “lucky guess” theory. He’s bullshitting them.

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  • tpyo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I feel it is very important to post this here:

    Image

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  • Lumidaub@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    He has very strange-looking ears as well so I don’t see the issue.

    Also, take that, people who were whining about artists drawing manga-style LotR fanart after the Peter Jackson movies.

    Anyway, does Legolas’ ability to see very far necessarily mean his pupils must be humongous? The pupils on eagles aren’t exactly very large either but as a cursory internet search tells me their internal structure is very different from human eyes. Anyone able to speculate on elvish eye anatomy?

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    • Hope@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I don’t know enough about eyeballs to be able to answer, but 5 leagues is a bit more than 5x farther than eagles can see, and eagles already have larger pupils than humans do.

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    • mmddmm@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Yes, the ability to see very far away does imply in very large eyes if you define “see” by properly focusing on the objects. But not large pupils, what matters is the size of the eyes lenses, on the bare front of them.

      But no, he could be able to perceive those stuff without the larger eyes if he had a good mental model of how the horsemen interfere with the background (what is probably easier than it seems, because would be moving), and how their hair would interfere with the previous outline.

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      • Umbrias@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        You ninja’d me lol. but that’s a good point about the interference.

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    • Umbrias@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      many eyes are near the diffraction limit (for human sized eyes the diffraction limit is around 20/10 vision). To have better accuity you factually need larger eyes. Although it’s the size of the lens that matters more than pupil size strictly. The pupil modifies the lens optics but the lens determines the limit.

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  • propter_hog@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Ok but 15 miles is over the horizon isn’t it?

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    • entwine413@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Yes, but it doesn’t mention that he’s 30ft tall.

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    • ProfessorOwl_PhD@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Elves canonically see in a flat plane, which is why they’re able to navigate to Valinor across the straight road, which is west of the grey havens ignoring the world’s curvature.

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      • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Bros’ eyes make light curve

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  • TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Middle Earth is flat. When they sail to the Undying Lands, they actually just fall off the edge.

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  • jgjl@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Remember kids: it it uses US American rando units, it’s probably not science!

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  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Not science but I recently learned that in The Sims 2 you can push the body control sliders to their max, hit a button to normalize the sliders while keeping your changes and then max out the sliders again, so you can do shit like give your sims Galaxy sized eyeballs.

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    • glitchdx@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      i remember doing this to make a sim with a nose the size of a car. I named him Nostrildomus.

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  • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    With coherent detection I think the separation between eyes would allow for this.

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  • huf@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    i would just like to mention that the physics of the universe in LOTR are obviously very different, since you can sometimes see stars during the day, if you’re in a deep valley

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  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I’ve heard of “wide-eyed” but this is ridiculous!

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  • don@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    What are they not giving? Frogs? Flops? Fangs? Forts? Flies? What are they not giving?

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    • Khanzarate@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Wrong.

      It was forks.

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      • don@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Oh for fucks sake.

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  • kersploosh@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Okay all you generative AI image hobbyists, let’s see Legolas with big, shiny eyes!

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    • Zizzy@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Image

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      • Acinonyx@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        I dont think this is AI

        even better

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      • fossilesque@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Legolas has brown hair though in cannon.

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    • match@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      as if humans haven’t already drawn anime legolas

      legolas drawn in a cute style

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    • fossilesque@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Isn’t there a bot?

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  • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Meanwhile I am trying to think of the shape that gives a further focal point

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  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I remember somebody making the argument that due to the diffusion of light he would not be able to discern their features at all.

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  • FloranceSmith@szmer.info ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Image

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