Homework Help: Math

Posted by Baby D on Monday, March 2, 2009 at 1:38pm.

A plane passes directly over you head at an altitude of 500 feet. Two seconds later you observe that is angle of elevation is 42 degrees. How far did the plane travel in 2 seconds?

Math - drwls, Monday, March 2, 2009 at 1:52pm
Call that distance X.
Draw yourself a triangle. Call point O your position. Draw a vertical line up from there with height 500. From the top of that line, draw a horizontal flight path with length X. Draw the connecting hypotenuse. The angle the hypotenuse makes with the ground (which is parallel to the flight path) is 42 degrees. The tangent of that angle is X/500 = tan 42
Solve for X
Math - kylie, Monday, October 1, 2012 at 12:25am
450.202 feet

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