How Much Can You See From 500 Ft in the Air

This is a rough guide to determine the distance of the horizon based on the observer's height above mean body of water level. The screen will work in Metric or Imperial measurements. Enter the height above Ocean Level either in Metres or Feet. Printing the Calculate button and the distance of the horizon will exist displayed in Kilometres when the observer'southward top is in metres or Miles when the observer height is entered in feet.

Altitude to the Horizon Calculator

Observation Superlative in Metres in Anxiety

Enter the Height, fix for Metres / Feet then click the Summate button.

The Mathematics behind this Calculation

This calculation should be taken every bit a guide simply every bit it assumes the earth is a perfect ball 6378137 metres radius. It as well assumes the horizon you are looking at is at sea level. A triangle is formed with the centre of the earth (C) as one point, the horizon point (H) is a right angle and the observer (O) the third corner. Using Pythagoras's theorem we can calculate the altitude from the observer to the horizon (OH) knowing CH is the globe's radius (r) and CO is the earth's radius (r) plus observer's height (v) above body of water level.

Sitting in a hotel room 10m above sea level a boat on the horizon will be 11.3km away. The opposite is also true, whilst rowing across the Atlantic, the very summit of a mountain range 400m high could exist seen on your horizon at a distance of 71.4 km assuming the air was clear enough.

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Source: http://www.ringbell.co.uk/info/hdist.htm

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