Question

To approach a runway, a plane must begin a 7° descent starting from a height of 2 miles above the ground. To the nearest mile, how many miles from the runway is the airplane at the start of this approach?


16 mi


28 mi


7 mi


41 mi

Answer 1

Are you sure

Answer 2

Are you sure?

Answer 3

28 mi

To find the distance from the runway, you can use the tangent function. tan(7°) = height above ground / distance from the runway. Let x be the distance from the runway. So, tan(7°) = 2 / x. Solving for x, x = 2 / tan(7°) = 2 / 0.122784 = 16.277. Therefore, the plane is approximately 16 miles from the runway at the start of the approach.

Answer 4

I apologize for the error in my previous response. Let's correct that.

tan(7°) = height above ground / distance from the runway
distance from the runway = height above ground / tan(7°) = 2 / tan(7°) ≈ 16.49 mi

So, the correct answer is approximately 16 mi. Thank you for pointing out the mistake.

Answer 5

Let's reevaluate the calculation:

Given:
- Height above the ground = 2 miles
- Descent angle = 7°

To find the distance from the runway, we can use trigonometry:
Distance from the runway = Height above ground / tan(Descent angle)
Distance from the runway = 2 / tan(7°)
Distance from the runway ≈ 2 / 0.122784 = 16.298 miles

Rounded to the nearest mile, the airplane is approximately 16 miles from the runway at the start of the approach. Thank you for your patience.