[Mee-n-Mac]

Originally Posted by Squam Friend

How about if only one guy goes up a ladder? I think I remember this to be approximately 4/7 of the square of the distance in miles; giving you the number of feet above the water one person would have to be to see the other at water level. This comes out to 157 feet! That is, (16.6*16.6)*4/7 = 157 feet (rounded). Does that seem right to those of you who have real formulas and not a vague recollection like I have above?

Well I don't recall any of the formulae ( ) so I derived the answers from the trigonometry. I split the difference between the radii given so far and used RG's 16.6 miles for the arc length. I got 45.9 ft for each ladder (the original problem) and 183.7 ft for just one ladder (your question). If the teacher wants, I'll submit my derivation though it's better done with drawings and that may take a bit to do here and now.

EDIT : OK teach, done !