For example, if a buyer obtains a seven-year balloon mortgage to purchase a home, he has seven years of equal monthly payments at a fixed interest rate. This rate is often lower than what the buyer would otherwise be able to secure under a traditional mortgage loan.
When sound reflects off a special curved surface called a parabola, it will bounce out in a straight line no matter where it originally hits. Many stages are designed as parabolas so the sound will go directly into the audience, instead of bouncing around on stage.
Those sailors should have known better. After all, they must have been aware that when a ship sails away it gradually sinks below the horizon, and when it returns it gradually rises out of the ocean. A strong clue that the earthâs surface is curved.