An airplane pilot over the Pacific sights an atoll at an angle of depression of 7°. At this time, the horizontal distance from the airplane to the atoll is 3,729 meters.
To find the vertical distance from the airplane to the atoll, we can use trigonometry, specifically the tangent function.
tan(7°) = vertical distance / 3,729
vertical distance = 3,729 * tan(7°)
vertical distance ≈ 464.35 meters
Therefore, the vertical distance from the airplane to the atoll is approximately 464.35 meters.