An airplane is flying in still air with an airspeed of 325 miles per hour. If it is climbing at an angle of 20°, find the rate at which it is gaining altitude.

Answer 1

You're going to use sin = 0pposite / Hypotenuse.
In this case the hypotenuse is 325 mph, the opposite side is the gain in altitude, 20 degrees is your angle.
Therefore sin 20 = Opposite / 325 mph
sin 20 * 325 = Opposite
111.15 mph = opposite

The airplane is climbing at a rate of 111.15 mph

Answer 2

why are people disliking Anonymous' answer? it's correct.

Answer 3

because it's wrong

Answer 4

dude ur supposed to take the derivative

Answer 5

Finding the derivative gives you the same answer, but we have to the set our calculators to degree and not radian in order to solve it the way anonymous did.

Answer 6

Make sure your calculator is in DEGREE mode
sin(20)(325)= 111.16