A drone is flying at an altitude of 120 feet above the ground. It needs to descend to deliver a package to a specific spot 25 feet above the ground. The drone takes 8.4 seconds to make it's descent. Interpret the quotient to describe how quickly the drone is losing altitude.

Answer 1

To determine how quickly the drone is losing altitude, we first need to calculate the total altitude it needs to descend.

1. Initial altitude: 120 feet
2. Target altitude: 25 feet
3. Altitude decrease:
   \[ 120 \text{ feet} - 25 \text{ feet} = 95 \text{ feet} \]

The drone needs to descend a total of 95 feet.

Now, we can find the rate at which the drone is losing altitude by dividing the total altitude decrease by the time taken to descend.

4. Time of descent: 8.4 seconds
5. Rate of altitude loss:
   \[ \frac{95 \text{ feet}}{8.4 \text{ seconds}} \approx 11.31 \text{ feet per second} \]

Therefore, the drone is losing altitude at a rate of approximately 11.31 feet per second during its descent. This quotient represents how quickly the drone descends to reach the target altitude.