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An airplane pilot over the Pacific sights an atoll at an angle of depression of 5° At this time, the horizontal distance from the airplane to the atoll is 4629 meters. What is the height of the plane to the nearest meter?

An airplane pilot over the Pacific sights an atoll at an angle of depression of 5° At-example-1
User Sam Borick
by
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1 Answer

6 votes

Answer: 405 meters (choice B)

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Step-by-step explanation:

The angle adjacent to the 5 degree angle is 90-5 = 85 degrees

Or you could note that 85+5 = 90.

Then from here you'd use the tangent ratio

tan(angle) = opposite/adjacent

tan(85) = 4629/x

x*tan(85) = 4629

x = 4629/tan(85)

x = 404.985 approximately

x = 405 meters when rounding to the nearest whole number.

User Ryantm
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