A pilot is descending. It takes them 4 minutes to go down 3,000 feet. What is the pilots rate of change per minute? Remember the plane is going down so make sure your answer reflects that.

Answer 1

To find the pilot's rate of change in feet per minute while descending, you can use the formula:

\[ \text{Rate of Change} = \frac{\text{Total Change in Altitude}}{\text{Total Time}} \]

In this case, the total change in altitude is 3,000 feet (since the plane is descending, we'll consider this a negative change) and the total time is 4 minutes.

Calculating the rate:

\[ \text{Rate of Change} = \frac{-3000 \text{ feet}}{4 \text{ minutes}} = -750 \text{ feet per minute} \]

The negative sign indicates descent. Therefore, the pilot's rate of change is \(-750\) feet per minute.