Nevertheless, how does the elevation of the Observer affect your formula?
Posted on 06/18/2009 3:46:57 AM PDT by Halfmanhalfamazing
Congress is debating a bill that would open up oil and natural gas platforms just ten miles from portions of Florida's Gulf and Atlantic coasts. It's putting pressure on state lawmakers to decide how close is too close to search for new energy sources.
As it stands, oil and natural gas exploration is limited to dozens of miles away from Florida's beaches and some in the state worry that allowing access just ten miles away, in Federal waters, puts Florida at risk environmentally without any of the financial windfalls.
(Excerpt) Read more at wokv.com ...
The equation is this: Visible distance (nautical miles) = 1.17 × Square root of the height (feet)
What that means is that an oil derrick 100 feet tall would be entirely below the horizon at 11.7 nautical miles (13.5 statute miles) from shore. (Multiply nautical miles by 1.15 to get statute miles.) If painted sea green/blue, they’d be invisible even closer.
Nevertheless, how does the elevation of the Observer affect your formula?
I say put the rigs on the beaches if we have to-—DRILL, BABY DRILL!
Once they nationalize the greedy oil industry the socialists will drill for oil everywhere, look for a platform on your lawn at that point.
Depending on the elevation and again assuming an 11 mile distance with a 100 foot tall oil rig, it would surely make a small portion of the rig visible.
But keep in mind the limitations of human vision vs distance.(perspective)
What you’d see would be merely a black speck on the horizon that at first you wouldn’t know if it was a boat or anything else unless you sat there for hours and just stared at it and realized that it wasn’t moving anywhere.
Also keep in mind how rigs are built. The highest points of these rigs are often times not the bulk of the platform.
For some places that would be fine, but for areas which rely on tourism dollars the NIMBY argument does carry weight.
Especially considering technologies such as slant drilling. There’s absolutely no need to put tourism dollars at risk when you don’t have to.
Heh heh it’s for the good of the collective you know. :-)
500’ should be ample!
“There’s absolutely no need to put tourism dollars at risk when you don’t have to.”
How in the hell does an oil platform put tourism dollars at risk!
Does a ship passing by drive everyone inland?
Shove your it isn’t natural up your backside!
There may have been small incidents, but no 'Valdez' type disasters from the thousands of wells and miles of pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.
No one is touring ... there is no tourism as it once was .... no one can afford it.
>>No one is touring ... there is no tourism as it once was .... no one can afford it.<<
Exactly.
A friend of mine did volunteer work at her local visitors center and she tells of once getting a call from a tourist asking which beach is closest to the ocean
Nothing personal, but I think that the “threat to tourism” angle is just dumb. Somebody should ask Santa Barbara if oil rigs at sea bothers tourists.
On the contrary, many tourists go to Santa Barbara just to see the infamous oil rigs.
The other benefit to rigs 10 or 12 miles off the coast is the reef effect that results. Fishing the rigs has been nothing but spectacular off the Louisiana coast.
————How in the hell does an oil platform put tourism dollars at risk!-—————
Stigma.
As conservatives we’ve been fighting the drive by media for many, many decades.
It’s taken a long time to get to a place where we can effectively fight back but their propaganda and notions go very deep. They have a huge head start on us.
Simply by being ‘news’ outlets they have a unique ability to spout their drivel from the standpoint of sheer fact.
That’s incredibly damaging and it’s something that can’t be ignored. Sure, we here at FR are largely immune to their efforts but way too many aren’t and act accordingly every single day.
You may find this particular thread worthy of a few minutes.
You have to run that equation from both the oil platform end (as you did) and from the viewer’s end, then add the two distances together to get the true horizon distance for that situation. In this case, the viewer’s position would be 1.17 x the Square root of the height of the highest condo or hotel room balcony facing the Gulf (just wait and see...). Figure that if both ends are 100 feet, the horizon distance just doubled to 23 miles.
"Mornin' ma'am .. I'm from the ABC Oil Company, and we'd like the right of way to your back yard and be allowed to drill there. We'll put in a sturdy, but decorative 'driveway' to support our equipment, and when the drilling is done, we will return your land to as original appearance as possible.
Now, here's a check for $42,000 for this agreement and a contract for you to receive a 2% commission check every month.
(This is not so far fetched ... the gas/oil drillers here in SW Penn. have given my daughter and son-in-law just such a deal and there is no acrual promise it will ever be done ((other feilds are being developed)), but the money became income my s.i.l. had to pay taxes on last year as it is considered income.)
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