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/sci/ - Science & Math

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3238662 No.3238662 [Reply] [Original]

An Airplane is flying at a constant speed and altitude on a line that will take it directly over a radar station located on the ground. At the instant that the airplane is 60,000 feet from the station an observer in the station notes that its angle of elevation is 30 degrees and is increasing at a rate of .5 per second. Find the speed of the airplane.


This problem is killing me /sci/. Should I just quit trying to be an engineer.

>> No.3238674

>>3238662
Well, you have <span class="math">\frac{d\theta}{dt}. Find <span class="math">\theta[/spoiler] in terms of <span class="math">x[/spoiler] and <span class="math">y[/spoiler], and you should be able to find <span class="math">\frac{dx}{dt}[/spoiler], which is what you're looking for.[/spoiler]

>> No.3238683

>>3238674
Dammit, let me try again.
You have <span class="math">\frac{d\theta}{dt}[/spoiler] and <span class="math">\theta_{0}[/spoiler]. Find <span class="math">\theta[/spoiler] in terms of <span class="math">x[/spoiler] and <span class="math">y[/spoiler], and you should be able to find <span class="math">\frac{dx}{dt}[/spoiler], which is what you're looking for.

>> No.3238685

>Should I just quit trying to be an engineer.

Yes, because your question has more to do with physics than it has to to do with building a plane.

>> No.3238704

yes, yes you should. if you can't answer a simple calc question like this, then you can't be trusted to build bridges or planes or really anything.

>> No.3238835

>>3238704
first of all engineers don't build anything. They design shit but not build (most of them are weak little nerds). Second of all if your so smart why don't you show me how to solve it.

>> No.3238995

>>3238835
60,000cos(theta)=x
if you can't solve from here you should just retake calculus.

>> No.3239022

airspeed or groundspeed? Because those are completely different things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundspeed