Driving through the prairies can seem boring. The road is fairly straight, the terrain is flat, and the scenery repetitive. But during these drives, there is one thing that always seems to captivate me: trying to determine how far off into the distance I can see, since all the things that make the drive tedious are also the conditions that favour long sightlines. With no mountains, trees, or other blockades in the way, the earth's natural curvature seems to be the only variables in play. So, after some simple geometry, one can figure out that the horizon is about 4.7 km away. Is that far enough to be impressive? If you think of standing on the start line of a 5 km running race, and if the route is perfectly straight and flat, it is kinda cool that one should be able to just barely see the finish line from the start line. So I guess that's pretty impressive. But, are there further sightlines on earth?
First seen: 2025-08-01 14:06
Last seen: 2025-08-01 15:06