🎈 Public Lab: Kite altitude question

by Ag8n | February 19, 2018 00:59 | #15762

An ancient question. How do you calculate the kite altitude knowing only the angle and line length? You will see a lot of people refer you to basic trig, but this isn't accurate because of the dip in the line. The line holding the kite isnt a straight line.

In the past, someone worked out the math using the line length and hyperbolic trig functions. I can't find it. Anyone know the formula?

Thanks

4 Comments

Got it!

It's at: Https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www//k-12/airplane/kitesag.html

It also has a link to a program called kitemodeller, since the math for hyperbolic trig functions can be nasty.

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@stevie reports:

The general rule of thumb I have used in the past is that the hight of your camera will be about the width of the photo it will take. Not sure where I heard it from, and maybe it could use some calculations and rethinking, but that's generally what I've thought. Also, the closer you are, the higher resolution they will be, but the higher you go, the less likely you'll have to stitch too many photos together and you can get your site in 1-2 photos!

I know this isn't precisely the same thing but it's good related information!

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glad you found the info, @ag8n! Some kite physics about altitude and line length is covered in notes on kite anemometers

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Question: Kite altitude question

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answered

question:balloon-mapping