Quote:
Originally Posted by Squam Friend
How about if only one guy goes up a ladder? I think I remember this to be approximately 4/7 of the square of the distance in miles; giving you the number of feet above the water one person would have to be to see the other at water level. This comes out to 157 feet! That is, (16.6*16.6)*4/7 = 157 feet (rounded). Does that seem right to those of you who have real formulas and not a vague recollection like I have above?
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Actually, this is very simple. See my equation above:
√1.5 X (√Ht1+√Ht2) = d (Statute Miles)(Ht=height in feet).
What happens when there is only one person? Well, set Ht2 = 0 in my equation, and you have your formula for one person!
It turns out that one person would have to have a ladder of 183.7 feet, just like Mee-n-Mac said. Mee-n-Mac, however, obviously likes more complicated formulas
. However, my formula is full of simplifiations and approximations -- and Mee-n-Mac's efforts just show that the simplifications are justified -- in this case.
P.S. Mee-n-Mac: Angle CAF is a right angle (it's a tangent). Likewise CM(rB). That's why the simple Pthagorean algorithm works.
P.P.S. Rattlesnake Guy: You're gonna have to get a bigger ladder.