Question

An airplane at 47,000 feet descends at a rate of 1,800 feet every minute. Write an explicit formula for this situation and determine the altitude of the airplane after 15 minutes. *

Answer 1

We can say that the initial height of the plane is 47000 and the slope of the equation is -1800. So the formula is

`h(t)=-1800t+47000`

where h is the height and t is the amount of minutes

We have that after 15 minutes the height is

`h=-1800\cdot15+47000=20000`