Distance to Horizon at Sea Level
The distance to horizon at sea level is calculated using the following formula. Distance = Square Root of (Height x 13). A person standing on the ground with a height of aproximately 5'7" or 1.70 m (average eye-level height), the horizon will appear at a distance of 4.7 km(4.7 km = ~ 3 miles or ~2.5 nautical miles). This formula was used by sailors to tell how far away objects were at sea. Note that this will only an estimate and assumes the earth is perfectly round and uses a person with average eye level.
Posted by brashed on 9/4/2009
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This is a rough guide to work out the distance of the horizon, based on the observers height above mean sea level ... The calculator will work in Metric or Imperial measurements. Enter the height above Sea Level either in metres or feet. Press the Compute button and the distance of the horizon will be displayed below.
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Horizon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Have you ever watched the sun disappear into the horizon and wondered, "How far is the horizon from where I'm standing?" If you can measure how high your eyes are from sea level, you can actually calculate the distance between you and the horizon as follows.
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Given the Height of Eye, Compute the Distance to the Horizon ; ... Distance to the Horizon ... Height of eye (specify units):
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If you want to know the distance to the horizon you simply have to know your height of eye. That is the distance that your eyes are off the surface of the water. If you're in a jon boat, that would probably be about three feet (if you are sitting like you should be in a jon boat).
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The equatorial radius of the Earth is approximately 6,378.14 km, hence rp = 6.37814×106 m. The following table gives the distance to the (sea-level) horizon for various heights h above sea level at the Earth's equator:
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It is a high-school exercise in geometry to show that the distance the eye can see to the horizon is the square root of the product of the elevation of the eye and the diameter of the Earth. ... Lakes such as the Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea are about 10 times saltier than seawater because they have no outlets.
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The distance between horizons is twice the above number, so if you are 5'6" (168 cm) tall and at sea level, this means that the distance between geometric horizons is 9.2km. For a 6'6" tall person, the geometric horizon distance is 10.0km.
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where "height above surface" is in feet and "distance to horizon" is in miles. If you are 6 feet tall and standing right at the water's edge, then your eyes are about 5.5 feet above the surface. The distance to the horizon is:
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Estimating distance to horizon ... (Of course, having looked at the diagram, we should realize that the distance we actually want is represented by an arc but the line segment corresponding to d should be close enough for our purposes, especially as the relative scales of R and h have been grossly exaggerated!)
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Distance to Horizon at Sea Level
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