An airplane flying 4000 feet above the ground begins a 3 descent to land at an airport. How many feet from the airport (horizontally) is the airplane when it starts its descent?

Question

An airplane flying 4000 feet above the ground begins a 3  descent to land at an airport.  How many feet from the airport (horizontally) is the airplane when it starts its descent?

shane_b · Answer

a 3 ? descent?

anonymous · Answer

there's supposed to be a degree sign next to the 3 lol @Shane_B

shane_b · Answer

Ok...draw a picture.  It helps...trust me :)  brb 2 minutes

anonymous · Answer

Idk how to draw one for this D: would it be the same as the other?!

shane_b · Answer

|dw:1363386947434:dw|

anonymous · Answer

Ok so would I solve this with tan or would it be something else??

anonymous · Answer

@Shane_B

shane_b · Answer

Sorry...phone.  One sec

shane_b · Answer

Ok, first you need to find the missing angle....can you do that?

anonymous · Answer

I don't think so, I'm terrible at math :/ I've been trying to finish this since Tuesday, I've gotten help/advice from my teacher and my parents and I still don't understand it at all :/

shane_b · Answer

Ok, in a triangle there is always 180 degrees.  So subtract the angles you know from that and see what you get...that's the first part.

shane_b · Answer

I can see you're thinking too hard :)  What 2 angles do you see in my triangle?

anonymous · Answer

So I'd subtract 180 from 4000??? o.O and yeah, I always think to hard on things lol :/ by angles do you mean like right angles, etc? If so then I see a right angle lol

shane_b · Answer

In the triangle, you have 2 given angles:   3 degrees and 90 degrees.  So subtract those two angles from 180 to find the missing angle

shane_b · Answer

ok, 180-90-3=?  :)

anonymous · Answer

87 degrees?!

anonymous · Answer

so the missing angle would be 87.

shane_b · Answer

Let's redraw it with all of the values we know and include some letters to mark each angle and side:|dw:1363388323819:dw|