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July 18, 2006
Telling large from small
"How do you tell a large plane from a small one?". A question asked of me yesterday, and alas such routine physical issues are very hard to explain from first principles, aren't they? I'm glad I'm not writing a dictionary!
"When viewed from a similar distance, a small plane subtends a smaller angle at the eye than a large plane, thus occupying less of the viewer's field of vision" was the best I could come up with. Alas, it seems I had mis-interpreted the question; we were standing at Bristol Airport awaiting a customer arriving from Aberdeen, and I commented that it would be a small plane. Of course, I couldn't see the plane at all; I just happen to know that Eastern Airways operate Jetstream 41 aircraft ... I've traveled with them to and from the Isle of Man.
Posted by gje at July 18, 2006 07:58 AM