No Original Thought
Second Officer
Flight distance : 1364209 ft
United Kingdom
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I am stood on a beach. Close enough to the waterline for it not to matter.
My feet are therefore at approximately sea level.
The horizon out to sea IS at sea level (as it is the sea!).
BUT the horizon appears to be higher than my feet.
If we assume a flat earth (don't go there - it's just for simplicity later on and actually works in our favour in this instance) then the illusion that the horizon is above the level of the sea at my feet is because my eyes are higher than my feet.
If I fly my drone out to sea a couple of hundredwtres and line it up with the horizon it will still be above the water, but by what amount?
If I set at about 20m high then flying out to sea the drone converges with the horizon at some point, but is still well above the water at 20m... That's also above my eye level... So that straight eye line to the horizon doesn't seem to work....
I can actually drop the drone below the horizon and it doesn't get wet... But is it lower than the height of my eyes at this point?
Assuming a flat earth the horizon is effectively at infinity (I think) so dropping my drone to the horizon line would only cause it to get wet if I was a long long long way away.
With a curved earth, the curve would take the water away from my drone way before infinity....
I need to stop thinking about the horizon now... It's making my head hurt.
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