an airplane's altitude is 100 feet as it descents for a landing on a runway whose touchdown is 5000 ft away. Let the x-axis represent the ground and the y-axis represent the airplane's altitude. What is the slope of the airplane's descent? What is the y-intercept of the airplane's descent? Write a model of the plane's flight.

Answer 1

During the descent,
the change in y is -100
the change in x is 5000

so, the slope is -100/5000 = -1/50 = -0.02

The y-intercept is when x=0. That is, at the start of the landing. y=100.

so, y = -0.02x + 100

Answer 2

You’re piloting an airplane. To prepare for landing, you change the plane’s altitude from a meters to c meters.