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- From: rolf@geoserv (Rolf Wilson)
- Subject: Re: flying puzzle
- References: <1993Jan27.235538.27148@cheshire.oxy.edu>
- Message-ID: <C1KKKE.K1s@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
- Sender: usenet@news.cso.uiuc.edu (Net Noise owner)
- Reply-To: rolf@geoserv.isgs.uiuc.edu
- Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
- Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 15:05:01 GMT
- Lines: 33
-
- dementia@cheshire.oxy.edu (Daniel Steven Reinker) writes:
-
- >Here is something I've been trying to figure out lately. I'm not
- >sure if there is actually an answer, but there must be.
-
- >Say I live in Hawaii and go to Los Angeles for college. While
- >I am in Los Angeles, I discover that I have the ability to fly
- >at a fast speed. Now, I decide that since I can fly, I should
- >be able to fly back home to Hawaii. Consider that I am a college
- >student with about $50 in cash and a library at my disposal. How
- >can I navigate my way to make sure that I arrive in Hawaii?
-
- As someone else suggested, follow a jet if you can fly at 600mph.
- However, even if you could, you might need more protective clothing
- than you could buy with $50 to protect yourself at that speed. Also,
- you would run the chance of losing the jetliner, because you would
- have to fly low most of the time (not enough money for breathing
- equipment) and a heavy cloud cover might separate you visually. Of
- course, a quick climb could be done up through the clouds (Would you
- want to fly through a storm cloud?) Then again, you might be able
- to fly above most clouds (no problem breathing at 10,000 feet, maybe
- up to 15,000 - you might be used to that if you lived on a mountain
- in Hawaii) and watch the jet at 30,000 feet.
- I think that you could do it even without the jet. Just buy a good
- compass, test your flying speed and look up the direction of Hawaii in
- the library. Fly the right distance, watching the compass, then take a
- quick climb up to 30,000 feet and look around. You could not breathe up
- there for long, but there are 9-10,000 foot mountains that you should
- be able to see from hundreds of miles away. A little calculation would
- tell you how far you could see Manua Kea, and how accurately you would
- have to follow the compass.
- --
- Rolf Wilson Illinois State Geological Survey rolf@geoserv.isgs.uiuc.edu
-