But if your eye line is higher, say 5’9” you’ll need to convert to decimal. One thing you’ll want to remember here is converting to decimals. That means standing on the deck of a massive cruise liner will offer you a distance to horizon far greater than what you’ll get sitting in a canoe. And, as you can see, the distance increases the greater the height. That’s why having your phone handy for the calculations is ideal. Things to RememberĬalculating square roots in your head isn’t always the easiest thing to do. That equals 2.87191811766 or nearly 3 miles off. If you’re standing up and you’re about 6 feet tall, let’s say your eyes are sitting at about 5.5 feet. So the distance to horizon, based on this, is 2.12105209844 miles. So let’s say you’re sitting in your boat and your eyes are 3 feet above the surface of the water. But for the purposes of accuracy we’re giving you some solid, if longer, numbers. This is fine, of course, the difference between 2.8 miles and 3 miles when you’re eyeballing the horizon isn’t all that significant. Many sites that offer up similar calculations tend to round their numbers up. If you’re curious about how the entire equation is developed, you can check it out on this site here. This calculation uses a fairly precise measurement for the earth’s radius and will give you very accurate numbers. That means 1.22459 (a number we derive from knowing the radius of the earth and using the Pythagorean Theorem) times the square root (√) of your eye height (h).
Horizon line calculator full#
The full method of achieving this formula is needlessly complicated but know that, when using the proper radius of the Earth, you can get a simple formula for determining distance to horizon. For our calculation we’re going to use 3,958.8 miles. The one piece of information you need going into this is the radius of the Earth itself. The calculation will therefore be different for a person standing on the deck of a fishing trawler compared to someone sitting in a kayak.
Not all of us stand the same, right? And you’ll be using the height of your eyes as a guide, since that’s the point you’re measuring from.
Well, the first thing you need to know is where you’re standing. So, how do we determine the distance from where we’re standing to the horizon? If you have an app on your phone or even an old almanac it may not be so hard. It’s a little mind bending when you think about it. The water you’re looking at is actually curving into the distance with the shape of the Earth. And though it looks like a flat run from you to the edge of the planet, you know that’s not true. You’re looking out from your boat across the water to the horizon line. Consider what you’re trying to figure out, after all. Not necessarily complicated, but not intuitive either. Calculating the distance to the horizon takes a bit of clever math.
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