SOLUTION: From an airplane 6000 feet above the ground, you see a landing strip at an angle of depression of 24.5 degree. Measuring the distance along the ground, how far are you from the lan

Question 3817: From an airplane 6000 feet above the ground, you see a landing strip at an angle of depression of 24.5 degree. Measuring the distance along the ground, how far are you from the landing strip?
Answer by longjonsilver(2297) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Draw a right-angled triangle, ABC, where AB is the ground and angle ABC is the right angle and length BC is the vertical height.

Draw a line paralle to AB (the ground) at point C.

The angle (outside of the triangle) this line makes with the hypotenuse, AC is the angle of depression, 24.5 degrees. By a simple "alternative" rule, angle BAC is also 24.5 degrees. We need to find the length of AB, so:

tan24.5 = opp/adj
tan24.5 = 6000/AB
AB = 6000/tan24.5
AB = 13166 feet (to the nearest foot)

jon.
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