When a pig farmer sued a hot air balloon firm, he needed to prove he wasn’t telling porkies.
如果一個養(yǎng)豬的農(nóng)民想要狀告熱氣球公司，那么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(yùn)的農(nóng)民，數(shù)學(xué)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(nóng)場經(jīng)理，今年46歲，他和67歲的父親米克，都堅(jiān)信，使他們家250頭豬受到驚嚇逃竄到一條溝里從而造成災(zāi)難性后果及巨大經(jīng)濟(jì)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(xù)了兩年的時間，如今該農(nóng)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(nóng)場的豬受驚事件發(fā)生在2012年4月份的一天，當(dāng)時一個載著一群游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.
原本呆在圍欄里的豬，因?yàn)楸患t白相間的熱氣球及其燃燒爐發(fā)出的聲音嚇到，隨即越過柵欄四處逃竄了200多碼（約183米）最后掉進(jìn)了一個水溝里。

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于低于或接近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(jīng)營農(nóng)場有16年之久的丹，懷疑這個在約克郡北部鄉(xiāng)村上空飛行的熱氣球違反了規(guī)定。

But the balloon’s operators insisted it had come no closer than 2,500ft to the farm.
但是當(dāng)時的熱氣球操作員堅(jiān)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(shù)據(jù)也支持了操作員的說法，認(rèn)為豬受驚事件不是由此導(dǎo)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(dāng)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(xué)數(shù)學(xué)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(yùn)用數(shù)學(xué)中的三角原理證明出熱氣球當(dāng)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(jì)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1萬英鎊賠償?shù)谋ｋU公司現(xiàn)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(shù)據(jù)很關(guān)鍵?！鞍阉羞@些綜合在一起，使用數(shù)學(xué)方法計(jì)算之后，我們就得出了答案?！?/div>

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(jīng)破產(chǎn)。