Question

When a 757 passenger jet begins its descent to the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., it is 3900 feet from the ground. Its angle of descent is 6º. What is the plane’s ground distance to the airport?

Answer 1

It's not 37,106 ft I just got it wrong !!! If that helps anyone

Explanation:

Answer 2

37,106 ft or 7.03 miles

Explanation:

The tangent function relates the angle to the adjacent and opposite sides in the right triangle that models this geometry.

tan(6°) = (altitude)/(ground distance)

ground distance = altitude/tan(6°) = 3900 ft/0.105104 ≈ 37,106 ft

The ground distance to the airport is about 37,106 feet, or 7.03 miles.