Charlie is at a small airfield watching for the approach of a small plane with engine trouble. He sees the plane at an angle of elevation of 32. At the same time, the pilot radios Charlie and reports the plane’s altitude is 1,700 feet. Charlie’s eyes are 5.2 feet from the ground. Draw a sketch of this situation (you do not need to submit the sketch).

Find the ground distance from Charlie to the plane.

Question

Charlie is at a small airfield watching for the approach of a small plane with engine trouble. He sees the plane at an angle of elevation of 32. At the same time, the pilot radios Charlie and reports the plane’s altitude is 1,700 feet. Charlie’s eyes are 5.2 feet from the ground. Draw a sketch of this situation (you do not need to submit the sketch).
 
Find the ground distance from Charlie to the plane.

cwrw238 · Answer

use trigonometry  ( the tangent of 32 degrees)
note that the opposite side of the triangle will be the height of the plane -  5.2  feet

cwrw238 · Answer

* altitude of the plane

yanasidlinskiy · Answer

How would I set it up though....

cwrw238 · Answer

tan 32 = (altitude - 5.2) / ground distance

yanasidlinskiy · Answer

Ok. I have this picture......|dw:1399985915175:dw|