Question

A plane is flying at an altitude of 32,000 feet. the distance between the plane and a radio tower on the ground is 50,000 feet. what is the angle of depression between the plane and radio tower? (round to one decimal place)

a. 0.6 degrees
b. 0.7 degrees
c. 32.6 degrees
d. 39.8 degrees

Answer 1

I've attached a picture of what it should look like.

Well, you probably know this already, but you need a TI-30Xa calculator for this.
Anyway, we are given the adjacent side and hypotenuse, what trig ratio is that? It's Cosine.

So divide the adjacent/hypotenuse:
32,000/50,000

You should get 0.64
Whip out your calculator, multiply
`cos^(-1)` to 0.64.

The angle of depression should be roughly 50.21 degrees.

P.S.
`cos^(-1)` is the inverse of cos which can be found by using the second button in the top left corner, then hitting cos. :D

Answer 2

tana=h/x

tana=32000/50000

tana=16/25

a=arctan(16/25)

a≈32.6°