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Old 3rd June 2005 | 07:14
  #10 (permalink)  
bookworm
 
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,648
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From: UK
Pieter Pan's and PIGDOG's calculations are correct geometrically. A complicating factor is that neither light nor radio waves travel in perfectly straight lines in the atmosphere. The rays bend around the earth, increasing the distance to the visible or radio horizons by something like 10% more than the geometrical result.

Thus the rule of thumb tends to be

distance/nm = 1.2 * sqrt (height/ft)

(rather than the geometrical factor which is about 1.07)
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