Apilot can see the runway she is about to land on directly ahead. when looking at each end of the runway, the angles of depression are 45° and 42°. if the airplane is 1,500 ft. off the ground, how long is the runway?
create an equation to model the problem. then solve the equation.

First, we get the length of the runway in which the pilot had seen a 45° by using the trigonometric formula of tangent. 
                                    tan 45° = 1,500 / x
The value of x from the equation is 1500 ft. 
We do the same for the 42°
                                   tan 42° = 1,500 / y
The value of y is equal to 1665.92 ft. To determine the length of the runway, we subtract the lengths calculated and this will give us an answer of 165.92 ft. 

A pilot can see the runway she is about to land on directly ahead. When looking at each end of the runway, the angles of depression are 45° and 42°. If the airplane is 1,500 ft. off the ground, how long is the runway?
Create an equation to model the problem. Then solve the equation.


165.92 ft.