Question

a plane departs an airport and mistakenly travels due west at 500mph for 30 minutes. the pilot realizes that the correct destination (airport b) was actually 600 miles away at a bearing of 60 degrees west from airport a. how far is the airplane from its original destination now?

Answer 1

403 miles

Explanation:

500 mph is 500 miles per hour

30 minuites is half an hour, so that is 250 miles west

60 degrees west, 600 miles away

so it is a triagle of 30 60 and 90.

600 is the hypotenuse of the 30 60 90 triangle

we need to find the height of the 30 60 90 triangle

using the special rule, the height is 300

the length of the 30 60 90 triangle is 300rt3

so 300rt3 - 250 is the length of another triangle.

height is still 300

hypotenuse is the distance of the actual area minus the plane's current position

(300^2 + (300rt3-250)^2)^1/2 is about 403.351433