A plane is descending at a 12° angle of depression. If the current altitude of the plane is 1,000 feet, find the distance the plane still needs to fly to reach the ground. Round the answer to the nearest foot.
The angle of depression is 12°, which means that the angle between the horizontal line and the line of sight from the plane to the ground is 12°.
Using trigonometry, we can use the tangent function to find the distance the plane needs to fly to reach the ground.
tan(12°) = opp/adj
Since we are given the current altitude of the plane as the opposite side and we want to find the adjacent side, we rearrange the equation:
adj = opp / tan(12°)
adj = 1000 / tan(12°)
Using a calculator, we find:
adj ≈ 4807.86 feet
Therefore, the distance the plane still needs to fly to reach the ground is approximately 4808 feet.