Problema Solution
A plane loses 2750 feet in altitude as it travels a horizontal distance of 39,300 feet. Find its angles of descent to the nearest tenth of a degree.
Answer provided by our tutors
this is a right triangle problem, 'side opposite' is 2750 and 'side adjacent' is 39300
tangent = 'side opposite'/'side adjacent'
let 'x' represent the angle, then
x = atan(2750/39300) = 4.0027
the angle of descent is 4.0 degrees