Determine Target Distance Given Depression Angle and Altitude

Skylar289

New Member
Joined
May 4, 2012
Messages
9
Ok, I'm not a programmer and my excel skills are stretched to the max at this point.

Problem

I am in an aircraft with a camera, on a gimbal. I know my altitude, I know my depression angle of my camera, should be simple enough to find my distance. Unfortunately I have no idea how to calculate degrees to radians, then input said radians into my formula and solve for distance.

400 ft Height
20 degrees downward angle
x is my distance variable

Eventually I would also like to use my current gps coordinates, my aircraft heading, my camera starepoint heading, and my distance....solved by the above problem, and determine the coordinates of what I am looking at.

Please help. I'm not even sure excel can even handle this, but if its possible, please let me know!!!
 

Excel Facts

Create a chart in one keystroke
Select the data and press Alt+F1 to insert a default chart. You can change the default chart to any chart type
Hi,

You want to know the distance from the camera to the ground?

=height / cos(90-angle of depression in degrees)

to convert from degrees to radians, multiply by pi/180

So, if the height is in A1 and the depression angle in A2,

=A1/COS((90-A2)*PI()/180)
 
Upvote 0
Hi, and welcome to the forum.

You can use the Radians() function to convert degrees to radians, see the help file.

It has been many moons since I last used trigonometry, so apologies if my formula is wrong, for example:

Excel Workbook
ABC
1HeightAngleDistance
240002011695.22
Sheet1


NB
I haven't taken into account if you need to convert feet to metres, etc.
 
Upvote 0
With your height above the ground as 400 feet and the angle below horizontal as 20 degrees, the following formula gives the distance to what the camera is looking at as 1,099 feet away from the point the plane is currently located at. It looks correct on the diagram I drew, but the diagram doesn't load to the forum.

Sheet1

<TABLE style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-LEFT: 2pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 2pt; FONT-FAMILY: Calibri,Arial; FONT-SIZE: 11pt" border=1 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 30px"><COL style="WIDTH: 64px"><COL style="WIDTH: 64px"><COL style="WIDTH: 64px"></COLGROUP><TBODY><TR style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 8pt"><TD> </TD><TD>A</TD><TD>B</TD><TD>C</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 18px"><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 8pt">1</TD><TD>Height</TD><TD>Angle</TD><TD>Distance</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 18px"><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 8pt">2</TD><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">400</TD><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">20</TD><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">1098.991</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE style="BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: groove; BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #00ff00; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: groove; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fffcf9; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #00ff00; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: groove; COLOR: #000000; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #00ff00; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: groove; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #00ff00"><TBODY><TR><TD>Spreadsheet Formulas</TD></TR><TR><TD><TABLE style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 9pt" border=1 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2><TBODY><TR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><TD>Cell</TD><TD>Formula</TD></TR><TR><TD>C2</TD><TD>=A2/TAN(RADIANS(B2))</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Excel tables to the web >> http://www.excel-jeanie-html.de/index.php?f=1" target="_blank"> Excel Jeanie HTML 4


Mike
 
Upvote 0
With your height above the ground as 400 feet and the angle below horizontal as 20 degrees, the following formula gives the distance to what the camera is looking at as 1,099 feet away from the point the plane is currently located at. It looks correct on the diagram I drew, but the diagram doesn't load to the forum.

Sheet1

<TABLE style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-LEFT: 2pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 2pt; FONT-FAMILY: Calibri,Arial; FONT-SIZE: 11pt" border=1 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 30px"><COL style="WIDTH: 64px"><COL style="WIDTH: 64px"><COL style="WIDTH: 64px"></COLGROUP><TBODY><TR style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 8pt"><TD> </TD><TD>A</TD><TD>B</TD><TD>C</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 18px"><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 8pt">1</TD><TD>Height</TD><TD>Angle</TD><TD>Distance</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 18px"><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 8pt">2</TD><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">400</TD><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">20</TD><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">1098.991</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE style="BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: groove; BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #00ff00; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: groove; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fffcf9; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #00ff00; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: groove; COLOR: #000000; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #00ff00; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: groove; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #00ff00"><TBODY><TR><TD>Spreadsheet Formulas</TD></TR><TR><TD><TABLE style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 9pt" border=1 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2><TBODY><TR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><TD>Cell</TD><TD>Formula</TD></TR><TR><TD>C2</TD><TD>=A2/TAN(RADIANS(B2))</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Excel tables to the web >> http://www.excel-jeanie-html.de/index.php?f=1" target="_blank"> Excel Jeanie HTML 4


Mike
AWESOME!!! That did it! all of your equations worked, I chose Mike's using Tan. Thanks everyone!
 
Upvote 0
That assumes that the world is flat with no terrain relief ...
 
Upvote 0

Forum statistics

Threads
1,213,558
Messages
6,114,297
Members
448,564
Latest member
ED38

We've detected that you are using an adblocker.

We have a great community of people providing Excel help here, but the hosting costs are enormous. You can help keep this site running by allowing ads on MrExcel.com.
Allow Ads at MrExcel

Which adblocker are you using?

Disable AdBlock

Follow these easy steps to disable AdBlock

1)Click on the icon in the browser’s toolbar.
2)Click on the icon in the browser’s toolbar.
2)Click on the "Pause on this site" option.
Go back

Disable AdBlock Plus

Follow these easy steps to disable AdBlock Plus

1)Click on the icon in the browser’s toolbar.
2)Click on the toggle to disable it for "mrexcel.com".
Go back

Disable uBlock Origin

Follow these easy steps to disable uBlock Origin

1)Click on the icon in the browser’s toolbar.
2)Click on the "Power" button.
3)Click on the "Refresh" button.
Go back

Disable uBlock

Follow these easy steps to disable uBlock

1)Click on the icon in the browser’s toolbar.
2)Click on the "Power" button.
3)Click on the "Refresh" button.
Go back
Back
Top