Talk:Seven-league boots
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[[Untitled]== According to some Danish stories, the Seven-league Boots double the length of each step, making the distance one has walked grow exponentially. Has anybody else heard of this, so it is important enough to mention in the article? 62.242.61.134 19:40, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
- Can't say I have, but that seems to be what happens in the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Is that worth noting, if the Discworld reference is? 81.104.102.54 19:28, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
Speed
[edit]Assuming a somewhat generous stride length of 3 feet, and based on the approximation of 3.5 miles (5.5 km) per hour as the definition of a league, a walker makes roughly 6,160 steps per hour. In seven league boots, this results in a speed of 150,920 mph (242,882 kph). This is equivalent to about 67,500 m/s and allows the wearer to circle the Earth in about 10 minutes (barring geography). It is also about 6,500 times as fast as the world record for the 100m sprint (23mph, I believe). If our walker were to sprint at world record pace, 23mph / 3.5 mph = a factor of about 6.5 times as fast, or just shy of 1 million mph for a short duration. Hope the boots shield the wearer from air resistance.
Though the boots are meant to be more figurative than literal in name, if anyone wants to vet my calculation and include it in the article, please feel free. Others might be as curious as I was. =) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.93.26.126 (talk) 19:08, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Discworld
[edit]Isn't 'unacceptable groin strain' more like 'being torn in two'? I hope that made sense. Lots42 (talk) 17:01, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
XKCD
[edit]Seven-league boots were mentioned the June 19, 2015, publication of webcomic XKCD. [1] The concept of this instalment concerns a six-word novel attributed to Ernest Hemingway. --Da hutchison (talk) 04:05, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
References
The above sections
[edit]1. If you can provide more information, and in particular some references/citiations, of Danish versions then I would say yes they would be of value.
2. As mentioned in this article, a league is a distance, not a speed. See also wikipedia article on Leagues as a unit. So to calculate speed using these mythical boots you'd need to provide a rate of steps. If you assume the step rate is constant with or without the boots, then the change is from 3 miles per hour to 21 miles per hour. i.e. 7 times the speed without the boots.
3. I think the phrase "unacceptable groin injury" is probably being quoted (unreferenced) from the Discworld text, and I would suggest that it is an ironic euphamism for, as you say, being torn in half.
Wayne aus (talk) 13:35, 21 April 2013 (UTC)
Richard Halliburton's final book titled "Seven League Boots"
[edit]The above book might be added to the list of modern works related to this article even if its only tangentally related. 49.197.13.166 (talk) 07:39, 1 May 2023 (UTC)
- In general, this sort of article isn't meant to list every possible related work. The works listed are meant to be a sample of significant, relevant works. By your own statement, this work is not especially relevant. It also wasn't significant enough to have its own Wikipedia article, for whatever that is worth. IAmNitpicking (talk) 10:50, 2 May 2023 (UTC)