A plane is 120 miles north and 85 miles east of an airport. If the pilot wants to fly directly back to the airport, what angle should be taken?
1 Answer
The plane has to turn
This would be on a bearing of
Explanation:
We can firstly map out how far north and east the pilot was from the airport, to find the angle to get back to the Airport.
(not to scale)
Because the plane is flying due east, it has to turn 90º to face south, before it turns the extra
It actually turns through the exterior angle of the triangle :
The question would be better if it asked for the bearing.
(Which is what a pilot would use)
Note:
and is not the same as