數學家證明熱氣球嚇跑豬 農民獲賠4萬

When a pig farmer sued a hot air balloon firm, he needed to prove he wasn’t telling porkies。

如果一個養豬的農民想要狀告熱氣球公司，那麼他得證明自己不是在胡說八道。

Luckily for Dan Gilbank, he had maths professor, the laws of trigonometry, a lucky photograph and a golfer’s laser rangefinder to back up his case。

丹·吉爾本克就是這樣一個幸運的農民，數學教授、三角原理、一張照片還有一個高爾夫球手常用的激光測距儀都幫他贏得了官司。

Farm manager Mr Gilbank, 46, and his father Mick, 67, were adamant that a low-flying balloon had caused 250 of their pigs to stampede into a ditch, with disastrous – and costly – consequences。

丹是一名農場經理，今年46歲，他和67歲的父親米克，都堅信，使他們家250頭豬受到驚嚇逃竄到一條溝裏從而造成災難性後果及巨大經濟損失的，是一個低空飛行的熱氣球。

Now the farm’s owners have won nearly ￡40,000 compensation following a two-year legal battle。

官司持續了兩年的時間，如今該農場的主人獲得了近4萬英鎊的賠償。

The stampede happened in April 2012 when a hot air balloon carrying a party of sightseers flew over Low Moor Farm, near York。

農場的豬受驚事件發生在2012年4月份的一天，當時一個載着一羣遊客的熱氣球飛過約克郡附近的低摩爾莊園。

The pigs had been in their pens but were so terrified by the sight of the red-and-white-striped balloon and the noise from its burners they charged through fences, stampeded 200 yards and ended up in a ditch at the end of the field。

原本呆在圍欄裏的豬，因爲被紅白相間的熱氣球及其燃燒爐發出的聲音嚇到，隨即越過柵欄四處逃竄了200多碼(約183米)最後掉進了一個水溝裏。

Hot air balloons are banned from flying lower than 1,500ft over it or closer than 1,500ft to it。

熱氣球在飛行時，與地面的距離被禁止低於低於或接近1500英尺(約457.2米)。

On this occasion, Mr Gilbank – who has run the farm with his father for 16 years – suspected the offending balloon had breached these limits as it soared over the North Yorkshire countryside。

因此，和父親一起經營農場有16年之久的丹，懷疑這個在約克郡北部鄉村上空飛行的熱氣球違反了規定。

But the balloon’s operators insisted it had come no closer than 2,500ft to the farm。

但是當時的熱氣球操作員堅持說熱氣球與村莊的距離超過了2500英尺(約762米)。

Insurers for the company used GPS data generated during the flight to back their claim that it could not have caused the stampede。

熱氣球公司的保險人員查看了飛行過程中的GPS數據也支持了操作員的說法，認爲豬受驚事件不是由此導致的。

However, the wife of a neighbouring farmer had by chance taken a photograph of the balloon. Low Moor Farm’s owners, Ian Mosey (Livestock) Ltd, called in Chris Fewster, a professor of mathematics at the University of York。

但是，丹鄰居的妻子當時偶然拍下了一張熱氣球的照片。低摩爾莊園的所有者伊恩·莫西有限公司，找來了大學數學教授克里斯·福斯特。

Professor Fewster used trigonometry to show that the balloon had been at a height of only about 100ft and had been less than 1,000ft from the pigs when it fired its burner。

福斯特教授運用數學中的三角原理證明出熱氣球當時的飛行高度只有100英尺(約30.5米)，熱氣球的燃燒爐距離豬圈不到1000英尺(約304.8米)。

He was helped in his calculations by Mr Gilbank, who used his laser rangefinder – a golfer’s tool to measure the distance to the green – to work out the height of the trees。

在福斯特教授計算的過程中，丹使用激光測距儀幫助教授測量了樹木的高度。激光測距儀是高爾夫球手常用作測量草坪距離的一種工具。

As a result, the insurers, who had initially offered ￡10,000 compensation, have now agreed a settlement of ￡38,782.

最終，起初只提供10萬英鎊賠償的保險公司現在同意把賠償金提高到38782英鎊。

Professor Fewster said the data he obtained from the photo was vital. ‘Putting all of that together, with fairly elementary mathematics, we got to the answer,’ he said。

福斯特教授稱他從那張偶然拍攝的照片中得到的數據很關鍵。“把所有這些綜合在一起，使用數學方法計算之後，我們就得出了答案。”

The balloon firm, also known as Cameron Flights Southern Limited, went into liquidation last year。

而那家叫做卡米倫南部飛行有限公司的熱氣球公司在去年已經破產。