Re: [DS2]Moon - Help Requested

At 22:16 12/13/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>2. Second, the Moon is about 1/6th the mass of the Earth. However, it
is
>less dense (and contains fewer heavy metals). But I have been unable to
>find what the circumference of the moon. I am trying to figure out the
>distance to the horizon on the Moon. If anyone can provide information
>or insight on this matter, it will be appreciated.

Calculating the distance to the horizon is not that tricky if you 
assume that the radius of the surface is much greater than the 
hieght of the observer. This is most definitely the case for combatants
on a planetoid. You can simply use this approximate formula:

DISTANCE_TO_HORIZON = (2*RADIUS_OF_SURFACE*HEIGHT_OF_OBSERVER)^1/2

i.e. the distance to horizon is proportional to the square root 
of the height of the observer. Note that this assumes a flat, 
spherical surface free of terrain that blocks LOS.

Hence, for the moon which has a radius of 1738 km, assuming a 
2m high observer, we get:

Dh = (2*1738000m*2m)^1/2 = 2637m 

>Brian Bell
>bkb@beol.net
>
ps. It's not really that hard to calculate this distance for 
really tall observers (or really small radii of curvature), but
I'm feeling lazy and I know for a human size observer the difference 
is negligible. If you feel that the exact calculation is the only 
way for you, then I could sketch out the exact solution, to be 
left as an exercise to the reader ;)
       Tony Christney
       tchristney@questercorp.com

  "If the end user has to worry about how the program was 
   written then there is something wrong with that program"
				  -Bjarne Stroustrup