Question

An airplane takes off at an angle of 15° and must fly over the control tower that is 250 feet high. In order to safely clear the tower once in flight, how far shor the plane be from the tower when it begins to takeotf?

Answer 1

To safely clear the tower during takeoff, the plane should be approximately 960.82 feet from the tower when it begins to take off.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how far the plane should be from the tower when it begins to take off, we can use trigonometry. Since the plane needs to safely clear the tower, we can consider the triangle formed by the tower, the plane's starting position, and the point where the plane reaches the height of the tower. The angle between the tower and the ground is 15°, and the height of the tower is 250 feet.

We can use the tangent function to find the distance from the tower. tan(15°) = opposite/adjacent = 250 feet/distance from tower. Rearranging the equation, we have distance from tower = opposite/tan(15°). Using a calculator, we can find that the distance from the tower should be approximately 960.82 feet.