Answer:
1) 7995.9 feet
2) 12 degrees
Explanation:
1)
We can start by drawing a diagram of the situation. Let's label the height of the tower as "h", the distance from the airplane to the tower as "d", and the angle of depression as 56°.
C (top of tower)
/|
/ |
/ |h
/ |
/θ |
A_____/_____|
d B
In this diagram, point A represents the airplane, point B represents the base of the tower, and point C represents the top of the tower. The angle θ is the angle of depression from the airplane to the top of the tower.
We can use trigonometry to solve for the distance "d" from the airplane to the tower. In particular, we know that:
tan(θ) = h / d
We can rearrange this equation to solve for "d":
d = h / tan(θ)
Substituting the values we know, we get:
d = 320 / tan(56°)
Using a calculator, we can evaluate this to get:
d ≈ 215.8 feet
However, the airplane is flying at an altitude of 7,450 feet, so we need to add this to the height of the tower to get the total distance from the airplane to the ground:
total distance = d + 320 + 7,450
Plugging in the value we found for "d", we get:
total distance ≈ 7995.8 feet
Rounding to the nearest tenth, we get:
total distance ≈ 7995.8 ≈ 7995.9 feet
2)
We can use the tangent function to find the angle of depression. Let theta be the angle of depression. Then:
tan(theta) = (275 / 1324)
We can solve for theta by taking the inverse tangent (or arctan) of both sides:
theta = arctan(275 / 1324)
Using a calculator, we find:
theta ≈ 11.92 degrees
Rounding to the nearest whole number, we get:
The angle of depression is approximately 12 degrees.