PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - At what FL should you see the curvature of the earth?
Old 11th Nov 2002, 14:23
  #8 (permalink)  
Lawyerboy
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: London, UK
Posts: 151
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I may have this completely cockeyed, but I seem to recall that a good formula for working out how far away the horizon is (and I got this from Pprune, I'll have you know) is

d = 1.17 x sqrt(h)

where (d) is the distance in nautical miles and (h) is the height in feet.

Assuming you're at sea level and about 6 feet tall, you'd be able to see the grand distance of 2.6NM. Someone standing on our two ships would be what, 40, 50 feet high? That would give you about 8 and a half nautical miles.

41,000 feet gives you 237NM, give or take.

Someone tell me I've got this right??
Lawyerboy is offline