1. An airplane pilot over the Pacific sights an atoll of an angle of depression of 7 degrees. At this time, the horizontal distance from the airplane to the atoll is 3,729 meters.
What is the height of the plane to the nearest meter?
A. 458 meters
B. 454 meters
C. 3,667 meters
D. 3,701 meters

Question

1. An airplane pilot over the Pacific sights an atoll of an angle of depression of 7 degrees. At this time, the horizontal distance from the airplane to the atoll is 3,729 meters.
What is the height of the plane to the nearest meter?
A. 458 meters
B. 454 meters
C. 3,667 meters
D. 3,701 meters

shadyykatie · Answer

attachment

tkhunny · Answer

Have you considered the tangent function?

Also, with distances this great, I guess we're just supposed to ignore the curvature of the Earth?  Oh, well.

shadyykatie · Answer

can you help me? I suck at this

tkhunny · Answer

Rule #1 - Stop sucking.

Angle of Depression from aircraft to atoll is 7º means the Angle of Elevation from the Atoll to the Aircraft is also 7º.

This gives the tangent function a chance: $\tan(7º) = \dfrac{Height\;of\;Aircraft}{Horizontal\;Distance\;to\;Aircraft}$

That's about it.