SOLUTION: Help please!- The approach pattern to an airport requires pilots to set an 11 degree angle of decent toward a runway.If a plane is flying at an altitude of 9,500 m at what distance

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Question 47633: Help please!- The approach pattern to an airport requires pilots to set an 11 degree angle of decent toward a runway.If a plane is flying at an altitude of 9,500 m at what distance (measured along the ground) from the airport must the pilot descend?-Thank you!
Found 2 solutions by Nate, stanbon:
Answer by Nate(3500) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
This is, as you already know, a figure of a triangle.
Leg: 9500
Since you measure along the ground: leg: x
Angle: 11 degrees
tan(11pi/180) = 9500/x
x = 9500/tan(11pi/180)
About 2,835,140 m

Answer by stanbon(75887) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The approach pattern to an airport requires pilots to set an 11 degree angle of decent toward a runway.If a plane is flying at an altitude of 9,500 m at what distance (measured along the ground) from the airport must the pilot descend?-Thank you!
Draw the picture.
You get a right triangle with side of 9500 across from the 11 degree angle.
Let "x" be the length of the side adjacent to the 11 degree angle.
EQUATION:
tan(11 degrees) = 9500/x
x=9500/tan(11 degrees) = 48873.26 m
Cheers,
Stan H.