Measure the height of a mountain using the ship's altimeter

[Andrew Linton]

Okay, there are no credits for doing this but, for the curious, there's a technique for measuring the elevation of a mountain above its surroundings that involves using the ship's altimeter.

Spoiler

[video=youtube_share;R_cRnUipkto]https://youtu.be/R_cRnUipkto[/video]

This mountain has the form of Mount Fuji but there is no central crater at the summit. What other processes could create such a feature? It stands alone in a plain (the term inselberg or 'island mountain' is used for this). If it were a volcanic plug - the core of an ancient volcano - what was the process of erosion that stripped away the ash and tuff that was above and around it? Micrometeoritic bombardment, perhaps.

 

[dognosh]

+1 rep.
I do similar , go to top then skim forward in level flight until I am above the "base" to get approx. height

 

[MarcusVatta]

There's another method you can use if you're in an SRV, and don't have access to the altimeter, although I haven't had much call to try it.

I used to teach this to cub scouts IRL, but it should apply to ED.

If you know your distance to the object, and the angle the object rises into the sky (using the attitude ladder), you can calculate the distance using this calculator: http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/calrtri.htm

The cheaty method is if the angle is 45 degrees, then the height is exactly the same as the distance. Useful if the altimeter method won't work for some reason.