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Discussion on answer by Mori: If Sweden was to magically float away, at what altitude would it be visible from the southern hemisphere?

Discussion on answer by Mori: If Swed…

Imported from a comment discussion on https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/147916/if-sweden-was-to-magically-float-away-at-what-altitude-would-it-be-visible-from/147925#147925
2095d ago – Jetpack
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Jetpack
May 31, 2019 16:56
then the significant position is the center point of Sweden, which is Flataklocken.
2. Distances should be calculated taking into account both latitude and longitude, using the haversine formula. You can't just subtract the two latitudes and expect it to work.

Taking this into account, I calculated the actual distance is about 85 degrees. This is harder to see than I though, but since it's less than 90 degrees it's still possible. Flying Sweden will be visible from some points in South Africa when its elevation is 10 earth radii.
rickster
May 30, 2019 13:03
Corollary: if you’re in South Africa right now, Sweden may have already snuck away and you’d be none the wiser.
Carson Myers
May 30, 2019 13:03
to add to your very sophisticated visualization: the stars in the northern hemisphere are both larger than Sweden and rather far away; you still can't see one in the direction of the arrow when standing on South Africa. The distance doesn't really change anything. To be sure, I am sending this from Sweden, currently located in the stratosphere
Chronocidal
May 30, 2019 13:03
This answer does not take into account that the atmosphere is refractive: the path you can see actually curves down - for example, when you see the bottom of the Sun touch the horizon at sunset, the bottom of the Sun is actually about 8°-10° below the horizon. As such, taking the latitude of Stockholm (59.3°N) and Cape Town (33.9°S) and observing that the difference is merely 93° (i.e. less than 98°), we prove that by the time Sweden reaches 1AU, it will be well within viewing angle. This is also related to why the Sun seems to "widen" at sunset