Question

A satellite has an altitude of 65 miles.what is the distance from the satellite to the horizon? Round to the nearest mile.

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

Our problem reduces to the following. Given D = 65 miles, what is the length of the missing side? Let us call the missing side x

To find out the length of the missing side, we use pythogoras' theorem.

`4000^2+D^2=x^2`

Since we know that D = 65, the above becomes

`4000^2+65^2=x^2`

taking the square root of both sides gives

`x=√(4000^2+65^2)`

which we evaluate to get: upon using a calculator.

`\boxed{x=4000.52.}`

rounding to the nearest mile gives

`\boxed{x=4001.}`

which is our answer!