Question 53903
a jetliner covered a horizontal distance of 5 mi. while following a flight path with slope 0.25.how much altitude did it gain?
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There is a very simple way to do this:  One definition of slope is "rise over run". Convert the slope of .25 to the fraction 1/4. That means for every 4 ft horizontally, it rises 1 ft vertically.
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Find the rise (altitude) for a horizontal value of 5 miles.
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 {{{1/4}}} = {{{A/5}}}
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Cross mult and you have:
 4A = 1*5
  A = 5/4
  A = 1.25 miles high or 5280*1.25 = 6600 ft is the altitude
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However, I see you are studying Linear equations so they probably want the equation for this: y being the vertical, would be the altitude, the plane will be starting at the origin. (0,0) so the y intercept will be 0
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Using the slope/intercept formula: m = .25, b=0, x = 5
y = mx + b
y = .25x + 0 
y = .25(5)
y = 1.25 miles
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you can picture it as a right triangle; the sides are 5 and 1.25 and the hypotenuse is the path of the plane.