optical illusion or moron alert?...

Post by **Freakaloin** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 7:31 am

well?...

http://www.sky.com/skynews/picture_gall ... -1,00.html

Post by **Tsakali_** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 8:04 am

prolly much more buffer than the picture shows

Post by **Transient** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 8:10 am

I'm no plane expert, but the one in the back seems to be a 747-type plane, whereas the one in front is more of a personal/business jet. Considerable size difference.

Post by **[xeno]Julios** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 8:22 am

Hm, according to the link (there are 6 photos with 6 captions), the darker plane is an Airbus A300, and the lighter plane is a 747.

We can infer, due to occlusion, that the A300 is closer to the camera than the 747.

Let's assume they were the same distance from the camera. If so, then the apparent size differences would be equal to the actual size differences.

the A300 is around 55 metres in length ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A-3 ... ifications )

the 747 is around 70 metres in length ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747#Technical_data )

that means that if the two planes were side by side, the A300 would appear about 5/7 the size of the 747.

If the planes really were far apart (it is claimed they were more than 1000 feet apart), then the A300 would appear larger, but it doesn't, indicating that they're relatively close together.

But perhaps the distance between the camera and the planes is so great that even a relatively small distance is a large actual distance. Also, if camera is zoomed, it may distort this relative sense.

There may also be optical size illusions due to camera/lens physics or something...

Post by **HateFactor** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:52 am

...so in conclusion, we don't know.

Post by **MKJ** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:13 am

julius overthinks everything

Post by **Nightshade** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:24 am

As Q3W's resident aviation expert I can tell you that those two planes are an Airbus A310 or A320 and a Boeing 777. The 747 has four engines, Jules. Also, they're no where near each other. The 777 is a fawking HUGE aircraft, its engine nacelles are about the same diameter as the A310's fuselage. They're clearly on climbout after taking off, and the Airbus is turning to his departure heading.

Post by **mjrpes** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:29 am

Nightshade wrote:As Q3W's resident aviation expert I can tell you that those two planes are an Airbus A310 or A320 and a Boeing 777. The 747 has four engines, Jules. Also, they're no where near each other. The 777 is a fawking HUGE aircraft, its engine nacelles are about the same diameter as the A310's fuselage. They're clearly on climbout after taking off, and the Airbus is turning to his departure heading.

We can only assume this if the camera lens has the same physical properties and follows the same laws of phyics as those postulated by the Standard Model. Julios has raised some disturbing questions in this regard. See S.F. Novaes, D.P. Roy, Basic Constituents of Matter and their Interactions in Canon 17-40L lens, Y. Hayato et al., Search for Proton Decay through p → νK+ in fullframe DSLR cameras. Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 1529 (1999).

Post by **MKJ** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:36 am

since when is NS the resident aviation expert?

Post by **Nightshade** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:15 pm

Since always.

Post by **MKJ** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:20 pm

o rly

thought you were the ballistics expert

you cant coin both, dammit

Post by **Nightshade** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:24 pm

Yes, yes I can. I wear other expert hats as well.

Post by **MKJ** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:37 pm

expert motorcyclist?
expert patriot?
expert debatist mayhap? or should i say expert monologist

Post by **SplishSplash** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:44 pm

Nightshade wrote:Yes, yes I can. I wear other expert hats as well.

are they comfortable

Post by **HateFactor** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 1:26 pm

SplishSplash wrote:
Nightshade wrote:Yes, yes I can. I wear other expert hats as well.
are they comfortable

Fool, no one wears such hats for comfort.

Post by **R00k** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 2:38 pm

mjrpes wrote:
Nightshade wrote:As Q3W's resident aviation expert I can tell you that those two planes are an Airbus A310 or A320 and a Boeing 777. The 747 has four engines, Jules. Also, they're no where near each other. The 777 is a fawking HUGE aircraft, its engine nacelles are about the same diameter as the A310's fuselage. They're clearly on climbout after taking off, and the Airbus is turning to his departure heading.
We can only assume this if the camera lens has the same physical properties and follows the same laws of phyics as those postulated by the Standard Model. Julios has raised some disturbing questions in this regard. See S.F. Novaes, D.P. Roy, Basic Constituents of Matter and their Interactions in Canon 17-40L lens, Y. Hayato et al., Search for Proton Decay through p → νK+ in fullframe DSLR cameras. Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 1529 (1999).

And yes, for those two planes to appear to be that close to the same size, they have to be pretty far apart.

Post by **Dek** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 3:38 pm

MKJ wrote: expert debatist mayhap? or should i say expert monologist

I think he prefers masterdebater