It is believed to be at an altitude of about 200 miles, but when first seen by an observer,, how far away over a particular spot on earth would it be passing over away from the observer. If seen lets say from LA would it be over SF ?
2007-12-06 01:23:30 · 1 answers · asked by scramo 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
That is a geometry or trigonometry problem. Basically you want the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle where the short side is the altitude above the ground (200 miles or so) and the other side is the distance between the two cities (neglecting the curvature of the Earth, which is small enough over such distances for a rough calculation like this one). So if SF is 500 miles from LA, the distance from your eye to the station seen over the other city is SQRT(500^2+200^2) = about 540 miles.
2007-12-06 02:54:13 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋