Question

Kurt is flying his airplane over a campground. he spots a small fire below at an angle of depression of 32°. If the horizontal d9stance from Kurt's plane to the fire is 3600 feet, find the approximate altitude of his plane.

Answer 1

A. 2,250 feet

Explanation:

We can calculate the value of the height thanks to the tangent trigonometric function, which relates the opposite leg (altitude) and the adjacent leg (horizontal), as follows:

`\begin{gathered} \tan \theta=\frac{\text{opposite}}{\text{adjacent}} \\ \theta=32\text{\degree} \\ \text{opposite = x} \\ \text{adjacent = 3600} \end{gathered}`

Replacing and solving for x:

`\begin{gathered} \tan 32=(x)/(3600) \\ x=3600\cdot\tan 32 \\ x=2249.53\cong2250 \end{gathered}`

The altitude value is 2250 feet