A person is standing at the edge of the water and looking out at the ocean. The height of the person's eyes above the water is h= 1.6 meters, and the radius of the earth is R= 6.38 *10^6 meters. (a) How far is it to the horizon? (b) Express (a) in miles.
1 Answer
Jan 10, 2018
(a) 4.5 km
(b) 2.8 miles
Explanation:
(a)
If R is the radius of the Earth and h is the height of the person then the diagram shows we have a right angle triangle of side R, R + h and d.
Applying Pythagoras we get:
Because
(b)