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What legend caused the death of William Burroughs' wife? Detailed answer Directory / Big encyclopedia. Questions for quiz and self-education Did you know? What legend caused the death of William Burroughs' wife? The legend of the medieval Swiss archer William Tell is widely known, who, for disobedience to the German governor, was forced to shoot an apple on the head of his own son, and Tell did not miss. Inspired by this story, the American writer William Burroughs wanted to surprise the guests at one of the parties. He put a glass on the head of his wife Joan Vollmer and fired a pistol - from a hit in the head, the wife died. Authors: Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia: Who, when and how first determined the size of the globe? The dimensions of the globe were first estimated around 240 BC by Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276-194 BC). Working in the famous Library of Alexandria, he discovered an old papyrus, from which he subtracted that in the south of Egypt, in Siena (present-day Aswan), at noon on June 21, a vertical pole does not cast a shadow, the reflection of the Sun can be seen at the bottom of the deepest wells, and therefore, The sun is directly overhead. Eratosthenes was not too lazy to check whether a vertical pole casts a shadow at noon on June 21 in Alexandria. Finding out what was casting, he measured the length of the shadow. If the Earth is flat, then both in Syene and in Alexandria the sun's rays should fall on the Earth at the same angle and the shadows cast by the pole should have the same length. If this is not the case, then the surface of the Earth is curved, and the more its curvature, the greater should be the difference in the length of the shadows. The length of the shadow measured by Eratosthenes in Alexandria showed that the angular distance between Alexandria and Syene should be about 7 degrees (if you mentally continue the poles installed vertically in these cities to the center of the Earth, they will intersect at an angle of 7 degrees). Eratosthenes hired a man who measured the distance between the indicated cities with steps, and it amounted to 5 thousand Greek stadia. Since 7 degrees is approximately 1/50 of a full circle (360 degrees), then the length of a full circle should be equal to 250 thousand stages, Eratosthenes reasoned. And then the radius of the globe is 40 stadia. Translating this value into modern measures of length (the ancient Greek stage is 175 meters), we get that the radius of the globe is 7 thousand kilometers. Eratosthenes' estimates were surprisingly accurate for those times, according to modern data, the average radius of the Earth is 6371 kilometers.
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