Digging through Netflix streaming selections this evening, I ran across a movie called "30,000 Leagues Under the Sea"... I had to wonder about that, so I did a bit of research and math.
A "league" is an ill-defined measurement term, but it varies from 3 miles, or 15,840 feet, to 18,240 feet, or in nautical terms, which would make more sense in this context, 1 mile is 6000ft, so a league would be 18,000 ft.
The deepest part of the ocean is 35,838 feet, which is slightly less than *two* leagues. The original Jules Verne tale was only 20,000 league, but the Earth's diameter is still only about 8000 miles, about 1/7th of the "20,000 leagues"... The circumference of the Earth (and the fact that it was round) had been known since around 200B.C. to be around 25,000 miles, or around 8000 leagues. Even if the value of pi hadn't been known nor the exact relationship between a radius and circumference, just looking at a circle will tell you that the length of a circle's circumference can't possibly be smaller than its diameter... Which begs the question "what was Jules Verne thinking?"
The director of "30,000 Leagues..." (aptly named Bologna) most likely was thinking "here's an old idea we can recycle and make some money with"...
I always thought he meant that they traveled a total distance of 20,000 leagues under the sea. I seem to recall they did circumnavigate the world, with lots of doubling back to attack ships and sea monsters.
ReplyDeletewell this is me looking dumb. That would certainly make a lot more sense. I guess that's what I get for going off on a tear when I hadn't read the book in probably 20 years.
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