please help with this question

**cinbad** · February 22nd 2006, 04:18 PM

Two airplanes leave an airport at the same time, and the angle between their flight paths is 40*.An hour later, one plane has traveled 300 miles, while the other has travelled 200 miles,each in a straight line. How far apart are the planes at this time?

**CaptainBlack** · February 23rd 2006, 01:36 AM

Originally Posted by cinbad

Two airplanes leave an airport at the same time, and the angle between their flight paths is 40*.An hour later, one plane has traveled 300 miles, while the other has travelled 200 miles,each in a straight line. How far apart are the planes at this time?

This is an allication of the cosine rule. You have a triangle with two
sides one 300 and the other 200 miles, and the angle between them
is 40 degrees.

$<br /> c^2=a^2+b^2-2ab \cos (\theta)<br />$

Substitute $a=200$ , $b=300$ and $\theta=40^{\circ}$ into the above and that's it

RonL

**cinbad** · February 23rd 2006, 04:55 PM

Thank you very much Captain

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