An air-traffic controller observes two aircraft on his radar screen. The first is at altitude 750 m, horizontal distance 20.0 km, and 25.0° south of west. The second aircraft is at altitude 1050 m, horizontal distance 17.0 km, and 17.0° west of south.

(a) Write the displacement vector FROM the first plane TO the second plane, letting i represent east, j north, and k up.

(b) How far apart are the two planes?

Please help me on this problem

1 answer

a) find the points horizontal (E,N) or (x,y) of the two points based on horizontal distance and angle. Now add the third dimension for each point knowing altitude.
distance apart.
d=sqrt((x1-x2)^2 + (y1-y2)^2 + (zi-z2)^2 )

displacment vector (x1-x2)xbar+...