Question

Which plane is closer to the base of the airport tower? Explain.

Write the distance for each plane to the nearest 10th

Answer 1

B because the altitude is 8000 and A is 20,000 so A will fly over the airport and B will not

Answer 2

Plane B is closer.

Explanation:

Plane B is closer.

The distance for Plane A is 7.9 km.

The distance for Plane B is 7.4 km.

Explanation:

To find the distance to the tower, altitude must be converted to kilometers. Each 1000 ft is 0.3048 km, so the heights of the planes are ...

-- Plane A: (20 thousand ft)*(0.3048 km/thousand ft) = 6.096 km

-- Plane B: (8 thousand ft)*(0.3048 km/thousand ft) = 2.4384 km

The Pythagorean theorem can be used to find the distance from each plane to the tower:

-- distance = √((ground distance)² + (height)²)

-- Plane A distance = √(5² +6.096²) ≈ √62.16 ≈ 7.9 . . . km

-- Plane B distance = √(7² +2.4384²) ≈ √54.95 ≈ 7.4 . . . km

The distance for Plane B is shorter, so Plane B is closer to the tower.