An airplane is approaching Seattle international airport. The pilot begins a 13 degree angle of descent starting from a height of 500 feet. What is the distance from the plane to the airport?
This one will not be a tan function. As you are trying to find the hypotenuse
of a right triangle, you will need to use the sine function.
Let x be the distance from the plane to the airport.
sin(13) = opposite/hypotenuse
sin(13) = 500/x
x = 500/sin(13)
x ≈ 2325.5 feet
Therefore, the distance from the plane to the airport is approximately 2325.5 feet.