Curvature of the Earth

CaptainRich · Jul 6, 2007, 07:29 PM

Hold on, buddy! This question is giong to draw a crowd! "Perfectly flat AND curvature of the Earth...?"

Let's start with: what is the heigth of the object departing? What latitude are you veiwing from? Altitude where you're standing...?

We want to know it all...

Effects of the Earth's Curvature and Atmospheric Refraction: on estimating a target's position

letmetellu · Jul 6, 2007, 07:35 PM

I was taught that the line of sight on the ocean is 12 miles, I have no idea if this is a proven fact but it is a starting place.

Wangdoodle · Jul 6, 2007, 07:41 PM

Well, lets say a truck at 39 degrees, altitude 2000 ft.

Wangdoodle · Jul 6, 2007, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by letmetellu

I was taught that the line of sight on the ocean is 12 miles, I have no idea if this is a proven fact but it is a starting place.

That's the term I should have used."Line of sight". That's what I was curious about.

Thanks

ebaines · Jul 7, 2007, 06:12 AM

You can use the Pythagorean Theorem to determine the line of sight for a person whose eyes are $h_e$ meters above the horizon. Assuming a perfectly round earth, the distance to the horizon is:

$<br /> D= sqrt {2R_e h_e + h_e^2}<br />$

To just be able to barely see the top of the truck of height $h_t$ slip below the horizon, you add
$<br /> D_2 = sqrt {2R_e h_t + h_t^2}<br />$
If you use 2 meters for both $h_e$ and $h_t$ , the total distance is about 17.5 Km, or 10.8 miles.

Curvature of the Earth

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