Question

A plane takes off at an angle of elevation of 15 and travels in a straight line for 3,000 meters. What is the height of the plane above the ground at this instant?

Answer 1

That's a right triangle with hypotenuse 3000 and the height y is the side opposite the elevation angle of 15 degrees.


`y = 3000 \sin 15^\circ`


We can actually compute
`\sin 15^\circ` exactly but I won't bother.


`y \approx 776 \textrm{ feet}`