8 miles high

[hambro]

Anybody know why 8 miles is significant? As well as the Byrds' song '8 miles high', the phrase crops up in Mickey Newbury's 'Just dropped in', and I've come across half a dozen or so examples in 60's counter-culture music, although right now I can't remember where....

[eskimo]

Could it be a reference to drug use?

[hambro]

It is most likely about 'getting high', but it is '8 miles' as a common measurement which has puzzled me for years...

[Mattk]

is it 8 miles up to space ?

[hambro]

Thankyou very much, mattk. Following your suggestion I found that the lower reaches of the tropopause (on the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere) is reckoned to be about 9 miles up, offering an answer which is well within a stoner's judgemental faculties.