Re: interesting pic for a classroom exercise?

[Rondo JEFFERY <RJEFFERY@WEBER.EDU>]

  I took the angular diameter of the sun to be 0.50 degrees, which is pretty close as an average value.  That makes the tip-to-tail angular length of the plane about 5.18 min., or 0.0863 degrees.  The angle in degrees plugs into the small-angle formlua to give the distance.
  The other neat things in this picture are the prominences around the edges and some flares in the face.  One prominence near the left edge I calculate to be about 23, 000 miles high.  Lots of good things to use this picture for.  Thanks for passing it along, Stefan.
Rondo Jeffery


> > > jeglin@4PI.COM 01/26/01 02:16PM >>>
> > The length of the MD-11 is 200'11" or 202'2", depending on which
> > engine it has.  That probably isn't as important as whether it is
> > viewed at a slight angle rather that perfectly edge on in the photo.
> > Taking the length as 200 feet, and assuming the view is close enough
> > to edge on, the distance I caluclate is 25 miles.
>
> I used 300 feet to get 30 miles, but admittedly did not keep too many
> significant digits in some of my calculations, and rounded off some
> known values (like the distance to the sun, which I remember as
> 93,000,000 miles, too lazy to look it up). I've heard there are
> planes on the drawing board coming up soon that will carry 1000
> people (like a cruise ship in the sky). How long will those beasts be?
>
>
> Stefan Jeglinski