Problem :
Rescue Mission. During a rescue mission, a Marine
fighter pilot receives data on an unidentified aircraft from an AWACS plane and instructed to intercept the aircraft. The diagram show below appears on the screen, but before the distance to the point of interception appears on the screen, communications are jammed. Fortunately, the pilot remembers the law of sinus.
Question :
How far must the pilot fly?
Identify :
X
Y Z
= 115 x = 27 =?
=? y z
=y = 500km
Solution :
We let x represent the distance that the pilot must fly
in order to intercept the aircraft and Z represent the point of interception. We first find angle Z: Z = 180 - (115+27) = 38
Because this application involves the ASA situation, we use the law of sinus to determine x:
Thus the pilot must fly approximately 736 km in order to intercept the unidentified aircraft.