Ok bogus tmsca calculator question

[StephenWong]

if anyone can figure out how to do this, i'll give them a dollar:

on a tmsca calculator test (summit meet 2007)

question 7 (1st page)
If superman is flying 3000 feet above the earth's surface, how far can he see in any direction?

WTF?

[Kurt]

At 3000 feet, the curvature of the earth becomes noticeable. He can see in any direction to the point of tangency....that is the horizon.

So it's simply a right triangle, where one leg is the radius of the earth (3960 miles) and the hypotenuse is the distance Superman is from the center of the earth (3960+3000/5280). Use the Pythagorean Theorem and solve for the other leg.

[stupidityismygam]

imagine the earth as a pretty little sphere....then

you have from to center of the earth-sphere to Superman a distance of [unparseable or potentially dangerous latex formula] since the radius of this strange sphere is 3960....

then from the center to the point on this pretty little sphere where his view ends is 3960....

you get a triangle that has Superman, center of earth-sphere, and view ends (tangent to earth-sphere)

so since it is tangent you get a right triangle so the answer should be [unparseable or potentially dangerous latex formula]...wahtever that is

[hustonstreet]

yeah, it's not really boggus.

[polymath25]

Well, if he's looking up towards outer space, then considering he's superman, there's no telling how far he can see. IDK, it seems to me the underlying thought of the question is good, but the way it is stated, assuming that StephenWong quoted it correctly, seems a bit weird. The point is, I would have skipped it.

[AuSmith]

Yea, I meant to reply to this earlier today... but something happened. There is something wrong with the fact that the problem never even says the word "horizon."

[LeoG]

lol bogus? yeah..all you really need to know is the radius of the earth here 3960 mi...the rest is kind of self-explanatory...draw it if you have to..the world and everything lol

[MistaPotta]

[hustonstreet]

yeah it is boggus if you think about him looking straight up... and it's also boggus when you start thinking about the biography of clark kent and all his super powers

[zefuri]

dang are you required to memorize these constants...well i guess at least i did for Fermi's in SO

[bradp]

zefuri, who from clements does Science Olympiad? Your school was the only one I recognized on the list of teams attending state (although i only know schools that are good @ uil because uil > science olympiad)

I'm counting on pwning the competition, @ the state meet, in we've got your number and fermi questions.

[zefuri]

im not on the numbers or fermi team =/ mark and i were b team for both but jim and stephanie are godly at numbers at least jim anyway and luou(some guy you probably havent heard of) is pretty good at fermis stephanie # =P

[bradp]

dang i was hoping that all of them don't do science olympiad...
how many do they do in we've got your number?

[zefuri]

well jim and a senior last year got 198...but this year at region the numbers were like impossible there was like a 0 and a 1 in one of the sets so it was like impossible to get over a certain amount but botht eams finished 1 set and got like 50 someting of the other

[bradp]

198?

I'll have to start practicing it like i practice NS...

[zefuri]

well then again the senior left and so now they ahve stephanie so iono and good luck with that...

[jimdaaa]

hey i can do it myself...and ur sister is a great help...she has a twisted mind...or i do...i think i do actually...and she often think of things i can think of...so the team works...even though i am faster...

[jimdaaa]

brad...how r u going to practice it like ns...after all...so is a team thingy...and i am sure clements is going to nationals...seeing how we got 35 with 17 events and we didn't even make a robot...sigh...oh well...state will be fun...see u there...

[bradp]

10 We've Got Your Number tests per day!

haha... i dunno how i will do. i still have to figure out who my partner is and what our strategy is gonna be. This is the first science olymp meet i've been to.