Can someone explain how on earth this formula was derived for the horizon ray distance (in Nm) from an airborne station? A mate gave it to me and said it came off one of the CD based training packages.
(Altitude/100)^0.5 x 12
The closest I could get assuming earth's diameter is 20924640 feet (equator) and 6076 feet per Nautical Mile is the following horrible bit of math...
(Altitude^2 + 41849280xAltitude)^0.5 / 6076
My attempt comes from a simple pythagoras application as per the attached image, and the answers are usually a bit shorter than the simple formula given at the top.
I'd love to know where these potted formulas come from. And yes, it is a rainy sunday afternoon and I have nothing better to do
