Question

When flying at an altitude of 5 miles, the lines of sight to the horizon looking north and south make about a 173.7 degree angle. how much of the longitude line directly under the plane is visible from 5 miles high?

Answer 1

5 miles high is one of the sides of a triangle depending on accuracy level
h^2=x^2+y^2
we don't have 2 distances
Tan A=O/a
O=a tan A
We solve for O because the angle is at the top of the line going up and we want the opposite angle that is along the ground
O=5×tan(173.7/2)=90.854033512
The distance he can see is:
90.85*2~181.7 miles

Now we need to find the distance between lines:
The north south distance between each line is 69 miles
thus the number of degrees he will see will be:
181.7/69
=2 19/30