Question

An airplane is at an elevation of 35,000 ft when it its approach to an airport. Its angle of descent is 6°.

What is the distance between the airport and the point on the ground directly below the airplane?

What is the approximate air distance between the plane and the airport?

Answer 1

Let the ground distance be x
tan6=35000÷x
x=333000 ft (corr. to 3 sig. fig.)

Let the air distance be y
sin6=35000÷y
y=335000 ft (corr. to 3 sig.fig.)