Question

Kurt is flying his airplane over a campground. He spots a small fire below at an angle of depression of 32 degrees. If the horizontal distance from Kurt’s plane to the fire is 3600 feet, find the approximate altitude of his plane.

Answer 1

Answer:

3293 ft to nearest tenth = side

Step-by-step explanation:

To find altitude this is the same in trigonometry as finding the side and we use calculation below in finding the hypotenuse which is same term as side for the angle of depression just to double check that height (altitude is less than slope in calculation).

sin (32) = 0.9271838546

3600/0.9271838546 = 3882.725074

= 3883 ft to nearest tenth. = slope

Then cos (32)x3882.725074 = 3292.737608

= 3293 ft to nearest tenth = side