Question

Two radar stations A and B, are separated by the distance a = 500 m, track the plane C by recording the angles α and β at 1-second intervals. If three successive readings
are
t (s) 9 10 11
α 54.80◦ 54.06◦ 53.34◦
β 65.59◦ 64.59◦ 63.62◦
calculate the speed v of the plane and the climb angle γ at t = 10 s.
The coordinates of the plane can be shown to be,

x = a*((tan β)/(tan β − tan α))

y = a*((tan α tan β)/(tan β − tan α))

Answer 1

maybe I'm missing something, but if angles α and β are in the x-y plane, how do we figure the altitude of the plane, and hence any climb rate? No mention is made of altitude, either of the radar stations, or of the plane.

No figure here, so I'm not sure of the 3-D layout.

Answer 2

nikaw