Question

A blimp is flying to cover a football game. The pilot sights the stadium at a 7° angle of depression. The blimp is flying at an altitude of 400 m. How many kilometers is the blimp from the point 400 m above the stadium?

Answer 1

To find the distance from the blimp to the stadium, we can use the tangent function and the information given in the problem. The tangent of an angle is defined as the ratio of the opposite side to the adjacent side in a right triangle. In this case, we can use the angle of depression to the stadium, the altitude of the blimp, and the distance from the blimp to the stadium to form a right triangle.

We can then use the tangent function to find the distance from the blimp to the stadium as follows:

tan(7°) = opposite/adjacent

opposite = tan(7°) * adjacent

opposite = tan(7°) * 400 m

opposite = 0.1214 * 400 m

opposite = 48.56 m

To convert this distance from meters to kilometers, we can divide the distance in meters by 1000, as follows:

Distance in kilometers = 48.56 m / 1000

Distance in kilometers = 0.0486 km

Therefore, the distance from the blimp to the stadium is approximately 0.0486 km.