quick techincal question

[galaxygoddess]

Not 100% sure how to put this.

I have a very bad judge of distance, so my own brain won't let me figure out how this would look.

My character is at the top of a tower looking down on a lake. and in the lake are a number of people swimming around. She notices they look very small, she can make out body shapes and hair styles but not faces.

About how high up is she?

the only reason this is important is because there's a contest going on, and whoever can run down to the lake, retrieve whatever it is in the lake, and then make it up to the top of the X foot tall tower, can have the bride.

The tower has to seem daunting enough, but without being rediculous, because I started to say "100 ft" then I thought that wouldn't be far enough so I though "1000?" No too high.

So what sounds like a good number here?

 

[neonlyte]

400 ft max, then again, my glasses probably need cleaning.

 

[galaxygoddess]

400 ft max, then again, my glasses probably need cleaning.

Sounds good to me

ty

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I would offer help but I'm afraid of heights and my eyes are really bad.

 

[impressive]

Sounds good to me

ty

Think of it in terms of stories (floors) in a building. From what you describe, I'd call that about the 15th floor. If each floor is 10' high ...

 

[galaxygoddess]

That also sound good. Hmm...

Any other height suggestions?

It's basically like a giant wooden balcony, they have to climb flights and flights of stairs to get to the top. Test of endurance and stamina kind of thing.

 

[Ǽltya]

That also sound good. Hmm...

Any other height suggestions?

It's basically like a giant wooden balcony, they have to climb flights and flights of stairs to get to the top. Test of endurance and stamina kind of thing.

I think Imp has the right idea about counting floors and assuming 10 feet per floor. Take this picture for instance. What floor of the hotel in the background would fit your story's needs? This picture is probably taken from too high for what want.
http://travelwithkids.about.com/library/graphics/hawaii/oahu/waikikviewwestnar.JPG

 

[Ǽltya]

Ah, here's another one. This picture is taken from a height of 95 meters (312 ft) from the Eiffel Tower. Do the people look small enough?

http://justinsomnia.org/images/looking-down-on-the-east-piler-of-the-eiffel-tower.jpg

 

[Weird Harold]

I have a very bad judge of distance, so my own brain won't let me figure out how this would look.

My character is at the top of a tower looking down on a lake. and in the lake are a number of people swimming around. She notices they look very small, she can make out body shapes and hair styles but not faces.

About how high up is she?

the only reason this is important is because there's a contest going on, and whoever can run down to the lake, retrieve whatever it is in the lake, and then make it up to the top of the X foot tall tower, can have the bride.

The tower has to seem daunting enough, but without being rediculous, because I started to say "100 ft" then I thought that wouldn't be far enough so I though "1000?" No too high.

So what sounds like a good number here?

A lot would depend on her eyesight, weather condidtions, time of day, etc. Under ideal conditions, she could make out those kind of details from about five hundred yards and she'd be looking along a "slant angle" from her vantage point (unless the tower is in the lake and they're at the base of the tower the distance from her to them is longer than the height of the tower.)

There is also the technology of your setting to consider -- prior to the invention of steel framed skyscrapers, a seven story building was as generally as tall as the building materials would support. Very thick-walled stone towers with little interior space could reach 250-300 feet but were more commonly under 200 feet and closer to 100 feet on average.

The Washington Monument was the tallest structure in the world when it was completed (and would make a splendid prototype for a "Rapunzel Tower")

The Washington Monument is an obelisk-shaped building in Washington ... Height from ground to top, 555 feet 5 1/8 inches = 169.29 meters ...

 

[Quiet_Cool]

That also sound good. Hmm...

Any other height suggestions?

It's basically like a giant wooden balcony, they have to climb flights and flights of stairs to get to the top. Test of endurance and stamina kind of thing.

Look on the bright side: If we can't tell you, and we're actually thinking about it, what are the chances your readers are going to notice, when they have no real reason to so much as mull it over?

Let'em suspend; that's what disbelief is there for.

Q_C

 

[Weird Harold]

It's basically like a giant wooden balcony, they have to climb flights and flights of stairs to get to the top. Test of endurance and stamina kind of thing.

One of the more famous tests of "endurance and stamina" that involves flights of stairs is an annual run to the top of the Empire State Building:

The Empire State Building rises to 1250 feet (381.0 m) at the 102nd floor, and including the 203 foot pinnacle, its full height reaches 1453 feet

Probably way too tall for your "rapunzel" to make out the kind of details you want, but you could always give her a fistful of quarters and let her use the coin operated telescopes on the observation deck.

 

[galaxygoddess]

Haha waaay too tall! I think 250-300 is going to be my best height. Though I want a surreal element in there, I don't want it TOO high, but I don't want it to be "oh is THAT all?"

I want her to spot her "intended" lover in the water and try to think of how to help him find the object in the water.

 

[neonlyte]

Haha waaay too tall! I think 250-300 is going to be my best height. Though I want a surreal element in there, I don't want it TOO high, but I don't want it to be "oh is THAT all?"

I want her to spot her "intended" lover in the water and try to think of how to help him find the object in the water.

I think you'll struggle spotting an individual in the water from that height. Working with head and shoulders is infinitely more difficult than spotting someone from full body view. Just think about being in a swimming pool and trying to spot someone you know down the other end of the pool.

 

[Weird Harold]

Haha waaay too tall! I think 250-300 is going to be my best height. Though I want a surreal element in there, I don't want it TOO high, but I don't want it to be "oh is THAT all?"

Personally, I'd go with the Washington Monument scale -- if you're making "rapunzel" the prize in a fairy tale style contest, then you need a record setting structure to challenge her suitors with. (the Washington Monument is still one of the tallest masonry structuires in the world.)

I want her to spot her "intended" lover in the water and try to think of how to help him find the object in the water.

She notices they look very small, she can make out body shapes and hair styles but not faces.

All you have to do is make her intended blond against the dark haired competiion and you can extend the distance he's recognizeable. And she could easily have a telescope available.

The next question is whether she can see the object they're searching for from her vantage point. (is she going to be successful in helping her hero or just filling time with futile plans?)

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I think Harold's got the deal on this. If you want the lover to have to struggle to reach the heroine, she's going to have to be too high to see him well with the naked eye. Better she should have binoculars or a spyglass depending on the historical period you're writing in.

 

[galaxygoddess]

No historical period.

Here's the basic of it, I know most of this, I just want to figure out my tower.


Princess is a very atlethic individual herself. She's in a bit of a problem, a neighboring kingdom wants their prince to be her new suitor, she refuses. The other king goes to her father and says "hand her over or else" so the father, who would rather make his precious happy than some spoiled brat, invents a challenge "befitting" his princess.

The competition is this, the "hopefuls" (anyone who enters the contest) will have to swim in a muddy lake and find 3 flags which they must take to the top of a tower, then when they have placed the flags at the top of their towers, they then have to climb the princess's tower.

The one SHE wants is a tall blonde haired man in a "signature" red outfit (swim shorts here, but he normally always wear some red outfit) so he's a rather easy person to spot.

The competiton are all pretty much blend in the back ground, except the spoiled prince who is a short stocky also blonde kid who always wear some form of blue.

The king thought this would be the perfect competiton because they THOUGHT they could eliminate the spoiled prince, turns out, he's a little more athletic than let on, so the princess is trying to figure out a way to give her lover a head start.


quick edit: I am thinking of making it so that once they place their flags, they have to dive from the tower back into the water and swim to the princess's tower

 

[Weird Harold]

Are the towers constructed especially for this competition or are they existing towers aroung the castle?

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Haha waaay too tall! I think 250-300 is going to be my best height. Though I want a surreal element in there, I don't want it TOO high, but I don't want it to be "oh is THAT all?"

I want her to spot her "intended" lover in the water and try to think of how to help him find the object in the water.

"She looked down, seeing him wading in the pool, and wondered how high up she was. One-hundred feet? Two-hundred? She wasn't sure, and had no way of knowing for certain. What she did know was that from here, she could only make out his form; no facial features were apparent, but by his hair and the way he moved, she could tell it was him. The distance? It seemed miles, not feet, but there were more important things to attend to. There was a task at hand, and she could waste no more time deliberating such tivial things as distance..."

There's always a way to bullshit around things. God bless human error.

Q_C

 

[galaxygoddess]

Are the towers constructed especially for this competition or are they existing towers aroung the castle?

Just for this competition. the princess tower itself is always there, but the other ones the princes start out on are constructed just for them for this purpose.

 

[NoJo]

Wow, after all this chat, I'm now really looking forward to the bit in your story where you mention the precise height

 

[galaxygoddess]

HAH! me too >.>

 

[Weird Harold]

Just for this competition. the princess tower itself is always there, but the other ones the princes start out on are constructed just for them for this purpose.

The suitor towers would probably look something like this then -- a typical height for a fire lookout tower would be 100-150 feet (the record is 225 feet for a steel lookout tower)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Drymountainlookout1930.jpg/180px-Drymountainlookout1930.jpg

Dry Mountain Fire Lookout in the Ochoco National circa 1930. This is a classic example of an Aermotor type tower.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_lookout_tower#Trivia

quick edit: I am thinking of making it so that once they place their flags, they have to dive from the tower back into the water and swim to the princess's tower

For scaling purposes:

The sensational Quebrada, where fearless divers plunge 136 feet into the crashing Pacific below, landing in a 9 1/2 foot deep inlet, has since the 1940's been one of Mexico's famous attractions.

No visit to Acapulco would be complete without this unique experience.

The "princess tower" could be a stone watchtower (atop a cliff?) or a gate tower, or even a central "Tower Keep" inside a medieval fortress castle.

Given the lake figures prominantly in your contest, I'd suggest a commandeered Lighthouse (if the lake is navigable) or watchtower atop a cliff the suitors have to climb before they can climb the tower.

As an example, Heceta Head lighthouse is about your necessary height above the water:

from: http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=131
The tower is 56 feet tall with a focal plane of 205 feet above sea level. The most powerful light along the Oregon coast, the light can be seen 21 miles out to sea and is only stopped by the curvature of the earth.

56 feet doesn't sound like a very tall tower, but after the mile-plus hike up from the parking area (on a trail re-engineered for handicapped access) the forty minute wait for the tout to start was more than welcome and the steep, narrow stairs were still a challenge at a tourguide pace.

I visited Heceta Head lighthouse a couple years ago and the topography of its location would make it a perfect "Tapunzel Tower" even if you transpose the Pacific Ocean for a navigable lake like one of the smaller Great Lakes (or something like Loch Ness.)

FWIW, the parking lot and beach are visible from the base of the lighthouse and people and cars were still easily recognizeable -- I can't find a map with the straightline distance, but it's at least five hundred yards.

 

[galaxygoddess]

That helps me a LOT! w00t! Thank you! *hugs*

 

[Weird Harold]

you're welcome.