Question

An airplane pilot over the Pacific sights an atoll at an angle of depression of 5 . At this time, the horizontal distance from the airplane to the atoll is 4629 meters. What is the height of the plane to the nearest meter?

Answer 1

404.98 m

Explanation:

The angle of depression is 5°

The horizontal distance from the airplane to the atoll is 4629 meters.

We need to find the height of the plane.

If we consider a triangle. 4629 meters will be the base and angle is 5°. Let h is the height of the plane. Using trigonometry to find it :

`\tan\theta=(x)/(4629 )\\\\\tan(5)=(x)/(4629 )\\\\x=\tan(5)* 4629 \\\\x=404.98\ m`

So, the height of the plane is 404.98 m.