Question

A plane is flying at an elevation 25000 of

feet.

It is within sight of the airport and the pilot finds that the angle of depression to the airport is 21 degrees.

Find the distance between the plane and the airport.

Answer 1

To find the distance between the plane and the airport, you can use the tangent function and the angle of depression. In this case, the distance is approximately 66487 feet.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the distance between the plane and the airport, we can use trigonometry. The angle of depression is the angle between the line of sight and the horizontal plane. In this case, the angle of depression is 21 degrees.

We can use the tangent function to find the distance. The tangent of an angle is equal to the opposite side divided by the adjacent side.

Let's assume the distance between the plane and the airport is x. The opposite side would be the elevation of the plane, which is 25000 feet. The adjacent side would be the distance between the plane and the ground, which is x. Therefore, we have:

tan(21) = 25000 / x

Solving for x:

x = 25000 / tan(21)

Using a calculator:

x ≈ 66487 feet

Therefore, the distance between the plane and the airport is approximately 66487 feet.