“...3, 2 ,1, Lift off!”. Being pressed hard against your seat the rocket takes off. You feel the adrenaline rushing through every single cell of your body. With an insane speed you are on your way towards moon! Don't forget to take Steem with you.
The lunar distance is approximately 385,000 km and it would take you around 3 days to get there. Finally you reached your destination and placed your foot on the surface of the moon. You look towards earth and see the perfect blue marble. What a beautiful view that only very few people in the history of humanity were granted to see live.
And there you see it, China! You know it's China since you can see The great Wall of China. With 6350 km length it's the largest building on earth.
But let's slow down for a second. Can we humans really see buildings from the moon? What's your guess? Today we will discover the truth behind this myth.
Let's go!
Human eyesight
We will talk about the resolution of the human eye and and in short how eyesight works. If you want to know more about the sensation of sight I recommend you to read my post Life Explorers - The Human Senses Part I: Sight.
Our retina has approximately 6 million cones and 120 million rods. When the reflected light hits our retina these cells become active. We have three different type of cone cells, S(-hort), M-(medium) and L-(ong) cones. Short, medium and long refer to the wavelength the cell is responding to. The rods however can work with different wavelengths and thus do not matter when it comes to color. They are responsible for brightness and become active when there is less light. While the cones are active and working we speak of photopic vision, responsible for color sight. Scotopic vision is the terminus for sight in low light and only seeing in shades of gray.
As described the human retina has three kinds of cones. Each sensitive to a different wavelength. The following illustrations depicts the relation of wavelength and cones. These three cones together make it possible that we see colors. By combining cones we are able to see over 200 million different colors.
What really matters it the resolution of the human eye, the distinguishability of very fine structures and the visual acuity. If you have been to a eye doctor you might know this chart with letters. They become smaller and smaller and you will notice it becomes harder and harder to identify the letters. This has something to do with your acuity.
Fig. 3 Snellen chart Source
Acuity is a property of our cones. The area on the retina with the highest density of cones is called fovea and is in the center of the retina. This is the spot where we have the highest acuity and see the sharpest. The acuity drops radically from there.
Fig. 4 Acuity of human eye Source
To keep it simple: It's is not possible to see any buildings on earth. The limiting factor is the resolution of the human eye. In Fact you won't even be able to see specific countries. From a distance of over 380,000 km all you can see is blue and white. The clouds would make it more or less impossible to see the buildings, besides they are too small to be seen.
Charles M. Duke (Apollo 16) and Eugene A. Cernan (Apollo 17) both confirmed they were not able to see any structures from the moon.
Myth or Fact? #30 - Your tongue is mapped into different areas of taste
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Myth or Fact? #28 - Can jellyfish kill people?
Myth or Fact? #27 - Drinking alcohol makes you warm
Myth or Fact? #26 - Lightning can strike from ground upwards
Myth or Fact? #25 - Bats are blind
Myth or Fact? #24 – Watermelon Seeds will grow inside your Stomach
Myth or Fact? #23 – Tea has Theine and Coffee has Caffeine
Myth or Fact? #22 - You have to wait an hour to swim after eating
Myth or Fact? #21 - Stretching before exercise is dangerous
Myth or Fact? #20 – A Penny dropped off the Empire State Building kills you
Myth or Fact? #19 – Cold weather makes you catch a cold
Myth or Fact? #18 – Hair and nails keep growing after death
Myth or Fact? #17 – Cockroaches can survive a nuclear catastrophe
Myth or Fact? #16 – Skin on heated milk is dangerous
Myth or Fact? #15 - Survive a falling elevator by jumping up as it hits the floor
Myth or Fact? #14 - Mosquitoes prefer people with sweet blood
Myth or Fact? #13 - Does Santa Claus exist? 🎅
Myth or Fact? #12 - Acid and Base saves Life
Myth or Fact? #11 – Glass is a liquid
Myth or Fact? #10 – During summer the Eiffel Tower is taller
Myth or Fact? #9 - Hot water freezes faster than cold water
Myth or Fact? #8 - Oxygen runs out in overfilled rooms
Myth or Fact? #7 – Does a mirror swap left and right?
Myth or Fact? #6 – Radioactive contaminated waste glows green
Myth or Fact? #5 – Does drinking distilled water kill you?
Myth or Fact? #4 - We only use 10% of our Brain
Myth or Fact? #3 - Is it colder during Winter because the Sun is further?
Myth or Fact? #2- The world's most famous equation: E=mc²
Myth or Fact? #1 - The Five Second Rule
Do you love photography? Then I hope you didn't miss my recent MyPictureSunday Episode where I went to Paris. You can see it here MyPictureSunday#10 - Last day in Paris + MyPictureDay Challenge Round #3. You should participate in the contest and win some Steem Power!
Tim
I hope one-day to have enough money to travel to China and have a good tourist visit
Don't worry , soon China will come to you, they are taking over the world. Give them a couple of years and you will see that wall moved at the border with US , Trump wanted a wall ..... The Great wall is coming :))
Actually going to China in 5 days. And as a chinese person I have to say that you are more than welcome. I hope our different customs won't bother you and that you will be able to enjoy our culture to the fullest!
And I hope you will make some great posts. Cheers
great post brother hope ya well
Soon all steemians will be on the moon from booming price of STEEM and BITCOIN... So we will all know sooner then later :)
hahha not so soon. Bitcoin up in 1 year...
Superb creation of the mankind which shows the great civilization of China.
serious shit physics here.....
Save it for tmr to read :)
... ridiculous comment... is this a joke?
What?!
Why r you flagging me?
DID YOU WENT THRU THE POST?
sorry dear but you looked for it... using general language and the word SHIT.
and I went thru the post, did you?
red flag because by your comment well yes, I understand you are telling @timsaid article is some kind of shit.
I meant (serious shit) physics...
come on....
of coz I didn't, I said I'm gonna save it for tmr
@digitalplayer, even if someone is telling this article to be a shit, everyone has the right to put one's opinion. Why this make you to raise a red flag?
so he have the right to tell shit to people and I cannot put red flag? your comment is not consistent my dear...
Well, I probably didn't understand you. Was that the word "shit" which you took it literally and felt offended or was it Johnny's apparent disagreement with the views / facts expressed in the article? I don't think he is telling shit to people but yes, he hasn't come up with his explanations for his stand. May be he wants to say that the arguments put forward to dispel the prevalent myth are not too strong or include some shitty principles of physics and there might be a better way to explain the same thing with better and consistent arguments. Whatever!
But I really feel that there wasn't anything substantial to invoke a red flag. However every one has got their own perception and can exercise their right of raising a red flag. I was just giving my opinion on it. Do as you like.
What happened was @digitalplayer thought you were criticizing the physics when you were just saying the physics was "some serious shit" meaning, so involved you had to save it to come back to.
ya that was exactly what I mean
Thanks for understanding my comment lol
Nice post, I've always wondered about this one!!
Interesting :)
This is a well-argued post. And it's short and to-the-point and nothing superfluous in it.
However, as a series that always trends, and that is important in the popularization of science here on Steemit, I am a bit saddened that it contains so many grammar mistakes! You make a lot of money, so wouldn't it be possible for you to run the article through someone before publishing it? You could pick somebody from Fiverr, for instance, or someone right here on Steemit. It wouldn't take them long, considering how concise your articles are. You could give them 10 SD or whatever, or maybe someone would do it for free. It just seems a shame because your articles are rather good and easy to understand and they promote science.
Anyway, hope this comment doesn't appear impolite!
Followed!
Thanks Tim for saving me a trip to the moon! And for teaching me some interesting facts about vision. @roused
As I people from China, I can tell you that it is a myth!
Well done post You deserve for getting Upvote from me. I appreciate on it and like it so much . Waiting for your latest post. Keep your good work and steeming on. Let's walk to my blog. I have a latest post. Your upvote is high motivation for me. Almost all Steemians do their best on this site. Keep steeming and earning.
This comment has received a 0.09 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @hamzaoui.
Thank you for this one, it was one of my questions since I was a child but at that point I found nobody to answer and I forgot about in after. The same with another question: Why is the snow white? For this one I got the answer through chemistry in high-school. Glad to find this kind of content on steemit, thanks for sharing.
Cool post!
Except the moon is the myth. NASA has deceived you all.
lol!
is it True that the moon is really a Space-ship?
Either that or a projection from Jupiter I think.
Yeah man, I watched moon phases, and they make no sense. Then, when lot's of people notice they make no sense, Nasa jokers come up with moon terminator effect, bending light joke, which is totally wrong since Earth would have been the attractor of all that light :)
So through all these years we were living in a wrong belief system, I always thought the myth to be correct.
Definitely a MTYH. Have you been to the moon?
Got Ethereum? Create your wallet and keep your ether. Here's how to.
https://steemit.com/ethereum/@yehey/how-to-create-your-own-ethereum-wallet
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Thank you.
Let's see! Got some of both
I'm sure I wouldn't be able to see it without help, I can't recognize a person from 30 feet, much less a wall from 385,000 Kms.
Exactly. Not possible
same here, ahime' .
Good way to put it, drive the point home even further!
Interesting post.
Great share, thanks!
Good quality content right there!
thats interesting
Yes, that makes sense. Even though our eyes have infinite range, the resolution is not infinite as already explained about you. Basically, we would need a satellite or telescopic vision to view that great wall of China from the moon!!
Exactly!
Always thought this was true....What about the Great Barrier reef??
Both the Great Wall of China and the Great Barrier Reef are possible to spot from space, like the international space station, but the moon is 30 earths away from the earth so it's a lot longer.
good for china
Thanks for the insite! You always make me think twice about the things we seem to have accepted as truth!
Probably the only human made thing that can be seen from the moon are nuclear bomb testing detonations...and Donald Trump's arrogance.
Bam! Well played!!!
I would love to go to China one day as well. It's at the top of my list. Maybe when XRP reaches $5 haha
Great read very informative. Are you aware rockets hit speeds 10x faster than a speeding bullet to get out of earths atmosphere? At least NASA tells us this, the human mind boggles as to how human bones are not crushed under the amount of pressure exhumed by 1.2 million pounds of of thrust . I've been doing some calculations and there's some interesting numbers coming about that do not make sense...anyone interested look up the Apollo 11 specs keep in mind humans were on board and passed through the Van Allen radiation belts unscathed. I'm very sceptical.
I thought, they say, you can see it from space, not Moon
Good posting. I like that you went into detail.
I saw someone say they wish they had the money to travel to China. Me too...but I wish for the funds and capability to travel to the moon.
Maybe to put your blog to the test.
Get me to the moon ;-)
@akraes
Myth due to the distance, you can not see any thing on earth from the moon.
I think this is a myth. Know when i read Chine grat wall i just remembered the movie :) Have a nice day !!
.. a myth, yes. As @timsaid article points out
lol! :D
;-)
Great post Tim!
Funny, the other day I had a talk with my friend how amazing it is we can see the moon so big and bright, even the craters. Okay fair enough we werent at the Chinese wall but surely the other way around is a fact!
I did some research and it seems the "myth" of being able to see the Great Wall from the Moon was started long before we had even started space travel, speculated on by amateur astronomers, yes, but nobody had actually been in space yet to prove it. In actuality, because the materials used give the wall a color similar to that of the surrounding landscape, the great wall is barely even visible from the Space Station in low Earth orbit.
Since this is not a political issue, this Snopes post is actually well-cited: http://www.snopes.com/science/greatwall.asp
Good digging.
Well done! I am on a mission right now to fly to the moon with #paragliding.
I like that you took your time to put the eye facts/info in the post to challenge the idea that you can or cannot see the great wall of china.
(the sound of flat earthers typing)
I've been there... in sector 23 and 64. .... what moon region are you on?
I will look you up when I get there. Its still just a bucket list item at this point.
HolySmoke! Attention on Deck! Captain' here too !!
winking noise*
Well this one I guess is a bit obvious that it's just a myth. And like you've said, our eyes don't have the resolution capable of seeing buildings from that far. Great post as always !
nothing is obvious my friend.
did someone say obvious?
YArrr !
I liked this journey.
The great Wall also see from @blueheaven🐛
I vote that it's true. China's great wall can be seen from outer space. I believe it's a fact. Love these posts.
Great post tim, it would be crazy amazing if we could see buildings from the moon to earth. It sucks we can't thou :P
Some things are so obvious I don't even think to ask them :D
winking noise*
Some things are so obvious i wonder why the whole world does NOT See them !! HolySmoke!
Woh you solved the mystery man. Another question can it be seen from space? I mean like from the satellite orbiting earth?
Thanks for the information
hi @timsaid
I look in your post amazing shared today.
Nice blog to read about scince. I like it.
I have latest post about my travel to steemit. if you have time helpfuly you will come to my blog.
Stuffed all my bags with steem, prepared my rocket and already on my way to the moon!
Haha love it, keep posting myths or facts!
Cool post.
You should do one about refresh rates and Hz (maybe you have) I've heard before that people can't tell the differnce past 60hz which is B.S. Some game console players are stupid enough to think it's 30Hz lol.
Basically I'm waiting for a OLED 100" 16k resolution 1500Hz TV that I will sit 3' away from, and I'm not letting anyone tell me it's impractical!!
I don't have to see the pixles, I just want to know they are there...
Every time I look at the photos of the lunar lander, I question us having been to the moon.
Such a saientific overview on the great Wall of China!
I like this very much !
@kam.ila