Question

Adventure Airlines

"Welcome to Adventure Airlines!" the flight attendant announces. "We are
currently flying at an altitude of about 10 kilometers, and we are experiencing
technical difficulties.
"But do not panic," says the flight attendant. "Is there anyone here who knows
math? Anyone at all?
You realize that your help is needed, so you grab your trusty graphing
calculator and head to the front of the plane to offer your assistance. "I think
maybe I can help. What's the problem?" you ask.
The flight attendant leads you to the pilot, who is looking a little green and disoriented.
1 am feeling really bad, and I can't think straight," the pilot mumbles.
"What can I do to help?" you ask.
1 need to figure out when to start my descent. How far from the airport should I be if I want to
descend at a 3-angle?" The pilot is looking worse by the second.
"That's easy!" you exclaim. "Let's see. We're at an altitude of 10 km and we want to land on the
runway at a 3-angle. Hmmm.
How far from the airport did you tell the pilot to start his descent?

Answer 1

Therefore, the pilot should start the descent approximately 190.84 kilometers from the airport.

Explanation:

To determine how far from the airport the pilot should start their descent, we can use trigonometry. The 3-angle mentioned refers to a glide slope, which is the angle at which the aircraft descends towards the runway. Typically, a glide slope of 3 degrees is used for instrument landing systems (ILS) approaches.

To calculate the distance, we need to know the altitude difference between the current altitude and the altitude at which the plane should be when starting the descent. In this case, the altitude difference is 10 kilometers since the current altitude is 10 kilometers, and the plane will descend to ground level for landing.

Using trigonometry, we can apply the tangent function to find the distance:

tangent(angle) = opposite/adjacent

In this case, the opposite side is the altitude difference, and the adjacent side is the distance from the airport where the pilot should start the descent.

tangent(3 degrees) = 10 km / distance

To find the distance, we rearrange the equation:

distance = 10 km / tangent(3 degrees)

Using a calculator, we can evaluate the tangent of 3 degrees, which is approximately 0.0524.

distance = 10 km / 0.0524 ≈ 190.84 km