67. From a height of 100 feet Great Orme's Head is visible from Douglas Harbour which is not possible on a spherical Earth

“The distance across the Irish Sea from the Isle of Man’s Douglas Harbor to Great Orm’s Head in North Wales is 60 miles. If the Earth was a globe then the surface of the water between them would form a 60 mile arc, the center towering 1944 feet higher than the coastlines at either end. It is well-known and easily verifiable, however, that on a clear day, from a modest altitude of 100 feet, the Great Orm’s Head is visible from Douglas Harbor. This would be completely impossible on a globe of 25,000 miles. Assuming the 100 foot altitude causes the horizon to appear approximately 13 miles off, the 47 miles remaining means the Welsh coastline should still fall an impossible 1472 feet below the line of sight!”


Hmmm

Dubay’s calculations are wrong as usual but that hasn’t affected the results.  By my calculations from an altitude of 100 feet at Douglas Harbour the horizon should be at 12.2 miles ignoring refraction. An object at 60 miles distance would have 1520 feet obscured below the horizon.  Since Great Orme's Head is at an elevation of 679 feet, that means that Great Orme's Head would be 841 below the horizon.  If we assume a typical refraction of Great Orme's Head would be 572 feet below the horizon and clearly not visible.

However I have been unable to find any accounts of Great Orme's Head being visible from Douglas Harbour, so I am inclined to believe that some information supplied by Dubay is incorrect.  Given his willingness to blatantly lie in other proofs that does not seem too far fetched.

I have found testimonies of the Isle of Man being visible from Great Orms Head.  Great Orms Head has an elevation of 679 feet.  The highest point on the Isle of Man is Snaefell at 2037 feet.  Using the correct calculations, at a distance of 70 miles only 967 feet of the island would be obscured making it clearly visible on a clear day.

Another possibility is that the weather conditions could have made the effect of refraction much greater, but I’m loath to go that route unless I can find information confirming that as a common occurrence stated in a form simple enough for me to understand.

I’ll keep looking into it.


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