数学证明热气球吓跑猪 英农民获赔4万英镑

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

如果一个养猪的农民想要状告热气球公司，那么他得证明自己不是在胡说八道。

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·吉尔本克就是这样一个幸运的农民，数学教授、三角原理、一张照片还有一个高尔夫球手常用的激光测距仪都帮他赢得了官司。

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.

丹是一名农场经理，今年46岁，他和67岁的父亲米克，都坚信，使他们家250头猪受到惊吓逃窜到一条沟里从而造成灾难性后果及巨大经济损失的，是一个低空飞行的热气球。

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

官司持续了两年的时间，如今该农场的主人获得了近4万英镑的赔偿。

The stampede happened in April 2017 when a hot air balloon carrying a party of sightseers flew over Low Moor Farm, near York.

农场的猪受惊事件发生在2017年4月份的一天，当时一个载着一群游客的热气球飞过约克郡附近的低摩尔庄园。

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.

原本呆在围栏里的猪，因为被红白相间的热气球及其燃烧炉发出的声音吓到，随即越过栅栏四处逃窜了200多码（约183米）最后掉进了一个水沟里。

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

热气球在飞行时，与地面的距离被禁止低于低于或接近1500英尺（约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，和父亲一起经营农场有16年之久的丹，怀疑这个在约克郡北部乡村上空飞行的热气球违反了规定。

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

但是当时的热气球操作员坚持说热气球与村庄的距离超过了2500英尺（约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.

热气球公司的保险人员查看了飞行过程中的GPS数据也支持了操作员的说法，认为猪受惊事件不是由此导致的。

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，丹邻居的妻子当时偶然拍下了一张热气球的照片。低摩尔庄园的所有者伊恩·莫西有限公司，找来了大学数学教授克里斯·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.

福斯特教授运用数学中的三角原理证明出热气球当时的飞行高度只有100英尺（约30.5米），热气球的燃烧炉距离猪圈不到1000英尺（约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.

在福斯特教授计算的过程中，丹使用激光测距仪帮助教授测量了树木的高度。激光测距仪是高尔夫球手常用作测量草坪距离的一种工具。

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

最终，起初只提供10万英镑赔偿的保险公司现在同意把赔偿金提高到38782英镑。

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.

福斯特教授称他从那张偶然拍摄的照片中得到的数据很关键。“把所有这些综合在一起，使用数学方法计算之后，我们就得出了答案。”

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

而那家叫做卡米伦南部飞行有限公司的热气球公司在去年已经破产。