Archive > The Amazing Race
EP10 : " Don't Talk to Me like I Was an Animal or Something "
Chateau d If:
I was going to put this in TWoP but theschnauzers found a more elegant way to pin down the date. Here’s to accuracy.
There is a way to use the Moon to determine whether the leg took place on July 26th or July 27th. I know, everyone is groaning, but if you follow along I think you may find this satisfying.
In the past we have use the phase of the Moon to set a date for a shot. Later on, we were (or more specifically I was ) tricked by canned shots of the Moon suck in willy-nilly. How many times have we seen that airport takeoff where the wing slowly passes through the full Moon? Lots.
This time I have a whole new approach using the Moon’s position to distinguish between two dates.
This shot was taken as the Bransen’s balloon just lifts off the ground. If you look closely you will see that the Moon is also in the shot. It looks very small because the Moon subtends only one half of a degree of arc in the sky. Photographers often make the Moon look larger in photos by using a special lens. So we expect it to look larger. And there is the “Moon Illusion” that psychologists have studied for years. Believe me, that is the Moon in the shot. According to this site, at 6:52 am*, on July 26th, 2005, in Park City, Utah the Moon’s altitude (the angle up from the horizon) was 51.9 °. It’s up pretty high. That’s how it manages to get into the shot. But it is not the altitude that helps us determine which day it is. The Moon’s azimuth will be the distinguishing feature of the day. In particular, what we can measure from the shot is the azimuthal angle between the Sun and the Moon.
If you ever see the Moon at the same time on two successive days you may have noticed that it has changed its position. It lags behind by about 15° each day. That is plenty big enough to measure. So (using the same site), at 6:52 am on July 26th the difference between the Sun and Moon’s azimuth angles was: 201.9 - 68.6 = 133.3°. And on the 27th it was 183.8 - 68.8 = 115.0°. Now, look at the shot. Since it was taken from almost perfectly below the balloon we can measure the angle by using the balloon itself as a big protractor. Doing that we measure that the apparent angle from the Sun to the Moon is 128°. That matches best to the 133.3° predicted by the astronomical data for July 26th.
*Here is where the 6:52 am time of shot comes from:
Driving from:
Park City High School
1750 Kearns Blvd, Park City, UT 84060
To launch site:
6250 Silver Creek Dr Park City, UT 84098
Google Maps has it at 5.3 miles and taking 8 min. Let’s make that 9 min due to towing a trailer full of balloon gear.
The Weavers would be getting there at 6:00 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 9 = 6:39 am. The Bransen balloon appears to be a hemisphere on the ground when the Godlewskis arrive. So that amount of progress is achieved in 10 min. By the time the Linzes are a few hundred feet up the Bransens look ready to go and the Weaver’s balloon is now one of those hemispheres on the ground. So that shot was at 6:39 + 10 min = 6:49 am. . So the Bransens probably got off the ground 3 min later at 6:52 am for the looking up shot.
Thanks Slowhatch!
puddin:
Bravo |#' ! Now thats Amazing ^_*(
puddin:
found this Blog interesting
Amazing Race Cowboy Roster...
just talked to Joe. (He's stuck in the meadow and was waiting for his wife to come pull him out...LOLOL). He said he was going to contact the producer, after the season ends, and ask if he could get a tape of everything filmed during the task. I enthusiastically agree.
Here's a few of his observations: He doesn't think Mr. Weaver really died but ran away. They gave him and the other fellows the lowdown on how well they could ride and how they didn't really need the safety schooling. LOL
The three brothers and sister were very VERY angry because the video equipment ran down the battery in their vehicle and put them at last place. He said they didn't take any frustrations out on them (the cowboys) but then, they probably knew they were outmuscled. LOL
The sister group were very nice, he said, to him and each other. He said the two who rode wanted to do it again.
One lady (don't know which group and Joe couldn't remember) was miffed because she was wearing shorts and thought the show producers SHOULD have warned them they would be riding horses so they'd know how to dress. I suspect it was Mrs. Weaver but we're not sure.
He said things were pretty tense during the task. It was the cowboys responsiblity to keep the teams out of trouble and make sure they didn't get hurt. Do you remember the scene where one girl had trouble stopping her horse and the cowboy was saying 'you're alright. You're alright' while he rode up to her? That was Vance and yes, he was worried. JD says he was scared when one woman stepped off and had her feet through the stirrups. Notice none of the guys were ever far away from the contestants? The producers were hoping two teams would have to move cattle at one time. Joe was relieved when it didn't happen. He said he was glad when it was over and nobody got hurt but I'll bet if you talked to any task instructors on this show they'd all say the same.
Joe says they were filmed a lot the day before the task. It'd be so great if we could see everything filmed!
Lori
Slowhatch:
Nice find, Puddin.
--- Quote ---He said he was going to contact the producer, after the season ends, and ask if he could get a tape of everything filmed during the task.
--- End quote ---
Joe shouldn't hold his breath on that one; even racers don't get their own footage.
puddin:
sorry the @$@#$$#@ link wont work (:;)
if you want more of the story just google ' Amazing Race Cowboy Roster...'
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