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This is a complicated question and depends on two things:-

1) how high are you standing above the ocean (e.g. are you swimming or standing on the top desk of a cruise liner) - the higher you are the further you can see.

2) how high the land you are looking at is above the sea (e.g is it a sand bar that is just above the waves or is it a 1000 ft high cliff) - the higher the land the further away you can see it.

The basic formula for the distance to the horizon when at sea is:

D = (112.88 km) * ( the square root of h)

Where:

D = distance to the horizon in kilometers

(112.88 is actually the square root of the earth's diameter in km)

h = height in km your eyes are above the waves.

Thus if you are standing on the sea eyes are about 2 meters (0.002km) above the ocean surface , D = 5 km.

You can use this equation to work a more detailed problem - say your land was a mountain 4 km high then you would see it from 226 km away.

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12y ago

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