An airplane rises vertically 1000 feet over a horizontal distance of 1 mile. What is the angle elevation of the airplane's path?

1 Answer
Oct 25, 2016

The angle of elevation is approximately 10.72^@.

Explanation:

We need to start by putting everything in the same units.

Let's convert 1 mile to feet.

There are 5280 feet in a mile, so we can change the initial statement to "An airplane rises vertically 1000 feet over a horizontal distance of 5280 feet".

The angle of elevation is measured by the horizontal, so the vertical rise will be opposite to the angle of elevation, theta, in the imaginary triangle we draw.

The proper trigonometric ratio to use will be tangent, knowing that opposite measures 1000 feet and adjacent measures 5280 feet.

tantheta = 1000/5280

theta = 10.72^@

Hopefully this helps!