How long is it from the time the sun touches the horizon until it dissappears?

Question

If I'm watching the sun set and start a timer when the sun touches the horizon, how long until it passes out of sight, assuming the horizon is a straight line.

Answer 1

Since the sun is 1/2 degree across and it takes 24 hours for one rev in the sky, if you do the math and assume no distortion because of atmospherics bending of the light, you;ll get two minutes for an answer.

Answer 2

I'm guessing that it depends on where on the earth you are located, and what season it is.

For example, in "summer" at the north pole, the sun doesn't set for 6 months (it moves in a circle around the sky near the horizon).

Then it's "night/winter" for 6 months. I imagine that (because of the angle of the sun setting at the North Pole) the sun would take a very long time to set and disappear... maybe several days?

I suppose that the opposite would be true at or near the equator (and so the sun would disappear very quickly).

You could do an experiment to see if this is really true. Take two time measurements: one in summer, and one in winter (it should take less time for the sun to disappear in the summer, because the sun is higher overhead, and so approaches the horizon closer to a 90 degree angle).

Answer 3

12 hours and some minutes changes with the season.