Question

Examples

Answer 1

The plane must descend at an angle of 7.25319°.

Step-by-step explanation:

Step 1; The plane is 44km away from the control tower and is flying at a height of 5.6 km. So a right-angled triangle can be formed using these measurements. The triangle's adjacent side measures 44 kilometers while the opposite side measures 5.6 kilometers. We need to find the angle of the triangle.

Step 2; Since we have the length of the opposite side and the length of the adjacent side we can determine the tan of any unknown angle. Assume the angle of the triangle is x°.

tan x° = $\frac{opposite side}{adjacent side}$ = $\frac{5.6}{44}$ = 0.127272, x° = $tan^{-1}$ (0.127272) = 7.25319°.

So the plane's angle of descent must be 7.25319° to land near the control tower.