When I am at the beach and look at the horizon, I see individual waves, but are they not too far for this?

Question

This must be an illusion. I can see individual waves moving up and down, but the horizon is too far away to allow me to see things this small. A puzzeling phenomonia.

Answer 1

Surprisingly for an average height person standing at sea level, the horizon is only about six miles away. You could see disturbances at that distance.

Answer 2

The horizon is only about 3 miles away for a 6 foot tall person standing at sea level. That is assuming a perfectly smooth sphere. A 3 foot high wave would stick up above the horizon of a 6 foot tall person if it was more than half way to the horizon, or over a mile and a half away. I think ocean waves are frequently taller than 3 feet so you may be seeing waves less than a mile away, which seems possible to me. Think of it another way. If you were swimming in the water so that your eyes were only 1 inch above the surface, the horizon would be only 1,873 feet away. But you would never see that horizon as a straight line in the distance because of the 3 foot waves towering above you all the time.