Question

A satellite has an altitude of 65 miles.what is the distance from the satellite to the horizon? Round to the nearest mile.

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

Our problem reduces to the following. Given D = 65 miles, what is the length of the missing side? Let us call the missing side x

To find out the length of the missing side, we use pythogoras' theorem.

$4000^2+D^2=x^2$

Since we know that D = 65, the above becomes

$4000^2+65^2=x^2$

taking the square root of both sides gives

$x=\sqrt{4000^2+65^2}$

which we evaluate to get: upon using a calculator.

$\boxed{x=4000.52.}$

rounding to the nearest mile gives

$\boxed{x=4001.}$

which is our answer!