Question

To approach a runway, a pilot of a small plane must begin a 10 degrees descent starting from a height of 1983 feet. To the nearest tenth of a mile , how many miles from the runway is the airplane at the start of it's descent?

Trigonometry

Answer 1

tan (10 degrees) = 1983 / distance
distance = 1983 / tan (10 degrees)
distance = 1983 / 0.17633
distance = 11,246 feet

11,246 / 5,280 = 2.13 miles