A small aircraft has a glide ration of 15:1. (The glide ratio means the plane moves 15 units horizontally for every one unit elevation). You are exactly in the middle of a 3.0 mile diameter lake at 500 ft when the fuel supply is exhausted. You see a gravel road to the dock and must decide wether to try a ground or water landing.
Please help with this word problem involving trigonometry
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algebra-precalculus
arithmetic
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1@AustinMohr: While often the case, I think that statement is no help to providing a useful answer. I am not a professional teacher, but I see questions on this site about word problems in the context of "I am having difficulty setting this problem up". If OP could set the problem up, I would hope we would see that. – 2012-12-05
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Hint: How far to the shore? How far do you glide? Remember that 1 mile =5280 feet (are you using statute miles, not nautical miles? Does it matter?).