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Lab 05: navigation: tangents and mount Everest

Migration

Tangent method:
  • measure a distance from the object (huge tape measure can be useful here)
  • measure the degrees you see in progressyour astrolabe to the top of the object
  • use the tangent calculator on your phone: tan = opposite (height)/adjacent (distance)
  • you could also use: distance x tangent θ = height
  • make sure to add your eye height
  • use this method to determine the altitude of the same objects
  • try to calculate the altitude of Mauna Kea by looking up the distance, knowing the elab is at 800 meters altitude (confirm this with the GPS on your phone)
  • using google earth, look up the distance between several peaks on your map and make a scale ruler for your map
  • use this scale ruler to find the distance to other peaks
  • repeat the tangent method to find the height of each peak you can see: Hokuula, La'e La'e, Mauna loa...
Questions:
  1. who measured the height of mount Everest?
  2. how did he/she do it?
  3. why do you need to know the elevation of your observation?
  4. if you measure Mauna Loa as 5 degrees and it is 60 km away, what altitude above sea level is Mauna Loa?
  5. Look up the true altitude and calculate your error

Migrated from Apple WikiServer Wiki. Original page m0m6o3.ID: m0m6o3