A)
To approach the runway, a pilot of a small plane must begin a 20° descent starting from a height of 3,760 feet above the ground.
triangle
To the nearest tenth of a mile, how many miles from the runway is the airplane at the start of this approach? The figure is not drawn to scale.
(1 point)
Responses
10,993.5 mi
10,993.5 mi
2.1 mi
2.1 mi
1.8 mi
1.8 mi
0.8 mi
0.8 mi
To find the distance from the runway, we can use trigonometry.
tan(20°) = opposite/adjacent
tan(20°) = (3760 feet - h) / x
x = (3760 - h) / tan(20°)
Plugging in the values, we get:
x = (3760 - 0) / tan(20°)
x = 3760 / tan(20°)
x ≈ 10474.8 feet
Converting feet to miles (1 mile = 5280 feet):
x ≈ 10474.8 / 5280
x ≈ 1.98 miles
Therefore, to the nearest tenth of a mile, the airplane is approximately 2.0 miles from the runway at the start of the approach.
So, the closest answer choice is 1.8 mi.