Friday 16 August 2019

how tall is that?

Walking back and forth in Dublin over the last couple of days, we noticed a strange construction in O’Connell Strret.

It’s difficult to get a picture of the whole thing on a mere phone camera.  Here’s the base:

a spike with a shiny base (and, apparently, a bit of my finger).

And here’s the rest of it:

all the way to the top

How tall is that?  It seems to go up forever.  It’s a cunning optical illusion, though: The Spire of Dublin is “only” 120m tall, but the way it tapers gives a false perspective view that makes it look a lot taller from the base.  Neat.




2 comments:

  1. Susan... I happen to be among the California Redwoods right now which seem to top out at about the same height as your spire! They also taper to the top.... hmmm?

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    1. Steve -- so do they look way taller when looking up at them from the base, too? The height illusion of the Spike is quite sensitive to viewpoint -- I found I had to get quite close to its base, so I was really looking up, before the illusion kicked in.

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