A plane leaves airport A and travels 560 miles to airport B at a bearing of N32E. The plane leaves airport B and travels to airport C 320 miles away at a bearing of S72E. Find the distance from airport A to airport C.

Answer 1

Once you make your diagram, it is easy to see that we can use the cosine law.

AC^2 = 560^2 + 320^2 - 2(320)(560)cos104°
= 502704.8074
AC = appr 709 miles