You are looking down at the earth from inside a jetliner flying at an altitude of 8700 m. The pupil of your eye has a diameter of 2.00 mm. Determine how far apart two cars must be on the ground if you are to have any hope of distinguishing between them with the following lighting.(
a) red light (wavelength = 665 nm in vacuum)
m
(b) violet light (wavelength = 405 nm in vacuum)
m
i got 2.59 and 1.58 for them respectively...but they are wrong...can someone help?
2006-08-09 16:58:15 · 3 answers · asked by sandler777 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Plugging into the formula for the Rayleigh criterion (Ref. 1), I get resolution angles of .023 and .014 degrees.
At 8700 meters (28,500 Ft.) altitude, R*Tan(theta) yields separations of 3.53 and 2.15 meters.
My car is about 4.9 meters long, so that would be between roughly three-quarters and something less than half a car length.
2006-08-09 20:10:23 · answer #1 · answered by Fred S 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
At 8700 m how are you going to distinguish anything?
2006-08-09 17:06:33 · answer #2 · answered by Bart S 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
omg you're kidding, right? I think you give FAR too much credit to the folks on Y! Answers!
2006-08-09 17:06:27 · answer #3 · answered by Stormy 4 · 0⤊ 4⤋