if the earth's diameter is 7920 miles, find the distance to the horizon, to the nearest tenth of a mile, for an unobstructed view from the top of a 200-foot apartment building?
+130555 If I could draw a pic, I would.....
Now, the radius of the Earth must be 3960 miles...
And converting 200 ft to miles we have 200/5280 ≈ .0378 miles
Note that the line of sight is tangent to the Earth's radius where they intersect.
So, we have a right triangle with a hypoteneuse of 3960 + .0378 = 3960.0378 miles
And one leg is the Earth's radius. So by the Pythagorean Theorem we have
√(3960.03782 - 39602 ) ≈ 17.3 miles
+130555 If I could draw a pic, I would.....
Now, the radius of the Earth must be 3960 miles...
And converting 200 ft to miles we have 200/5280 ≈ .0378 miles
Note that the line of sight is tangent to the Earth's radius where they intersect.
So, we have a right triangle with a hypoteneuse of 3960 + .0378 = 3960.0378 miles
And one leg is the Earth's radius. So by the Pythagorean Theorem we have
√(3960.03782 - 39602 ) ≈ 17.3 miles
