Question

to approach the runway, a pilot of a small plane must begin a 10 degree descent from a height of 1790 feet above the ground. To the nearest tenth of a mile, how many miles away from the runway is the airplane at the start of this approach?

Answer 1

2.0 Miles

Explanation:

If you see on another post that the answer is .3 that is incorrect

Answer 2

2.0 miles.

Explanation:

Let x be the distance from the runway and airplane at the start of this approach.

We have been given that to approach the runway, a pilot of a small plane must begin a 10 degree descent from a height of 1790 feet above the ground.

We will use sine to solve our given problem as sine relates opposite side of a right triangle to its hypotenuse.

`\text{sin}=\frac{\text{Opposite}}{\text{Hypotenuse}}`

Upon substituting our given values in above formula, we will get:

`\text{sin}(10^(\circ))=(1790)/(x)`

`x=\frac{1790}{\text{sin}(10^(\circ))}`

`x=(1790)/(0.173648177667)`

`x=10308.1991648`

To convert the distance into miles, we will divide our distance in feet by 5280 as one mile equals to 5280 feet.

`x=(10308.1991648)/(5280)`

`x=1.95231044788`

Upon rounding our answer to the nearest tenth of a mile we will get,

`x\approx 2.0`

Therefore, the airplane is approximately 2.0 miles away from the runway at the start of this approach.