Sunsets, tall buildings and the Earth's radius
Popular Physics
2009-07-24 v2 Physics Education
Abstract
It is shown how repeated observations of the sunset from various points up a tall building can be used to determine the Earth's radius. The same observations can also be used, at some latitudes, to deduce an approximate value for the amount of atmospheric refraction at the horizon.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0812.3911,
title = {Sunsets, tall buildings and the Earth's radius},
author = {P. K. Aravind},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0812.3911},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Some typos are corrected and wording is improved in a couple of places