Re: [Phys-L] Lord Of The Flies

[Todd Pedlar <pedlto01@luther.edu>]

I wouldn't read that as necessarily implying farsightedness, but it
certainly allows for it - if he's so farsighted that his near point is
several meters away, since he says "all blurs" which I would assume means
all the other kids and things around him.

I suppose because I know nearsightedness as my own condition (but I have a
prodigious nearpoint of about 6cm) and know that without my glasses I can't
see clearly much beyond a foot in front of my face, I've always taken Piggy
being so nearsighted that even his hand at a few tens of centimeters is
blurry.  Whatever the case, it's clear that things nearby Piggy are blurry
- just before he gets the glasses back, it is said that "Ralph put them
back into Piggy's groping hands".


On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 6:49 AM, Anthony Lapinski <alapinski@pds.org> wrote:

> This came up the other day while I was teaching optics -- when Jack takes
> Piggy's glasses to start a fire on a sunny day (Chapter 2, Fire On The
> Mountain). I've always heard (and there's plenty of info online) that the
> story is flawed because Piggy is NEARsighted and thus wears diverging
> lenses which could not be used to start a fire. However, the text reads:
>
> *...Give 'em back. I can hardly see...*
>
> *...Jus' blurs, that's all. Hardly see my hand....*
>
> This implies that Piggy is actually FARsighted and thus wears converging
> lenses.
>
> Am I missing something here?
>
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-- 
Todd K. Pedlar
Associate Professor of Physics
Luther College, Decorah, IA
pedlto01@luther.edu