Question

A person standing at the top of Mountain Rainier would be approximately 2.7 mi high. The radius of earth is 3959 mi.What is the distance to the horizon from this point?

Answer 1

103.4 mi to nearest hundredth.

Explanation:

This is an application of the Tangent/secant of a Circle theorem.

If h is the distance to the horizon:

h^2 = 2.7 * (3959 + 2.7)

h^2 = 10696.59

h = 103.424 miles.