Problema Solution
On an approach to an airport, a plane is descending at an angle of 3 degrees and 30 minutes. How much altitude is lost as the plane travels a horizontal distance of 21.2 miles.
Answer provided by our tutors
this is a right triangle problem with 'side adjacent' of 21.2 miles and an angle of 3.5 degrees
tangent(angle) = 'side opposite'/'side adjacent'
we want to solve this triangle for 'side opposite', so:
tan(3.5)*21.2 = 1.296
approximately 1.3 miles of altitude is lost over a stretch of 21.2 miles of horizontal distance