A small plane flies at 10 000 feet toward an oil spill.

[jshaziza]

A pilot of a small plane was flying towards an oil spill at an altitude of 10,000 ft. She found that the near edge of the spill had an angle of depression of 58 degrees and the far edge of the spill had an angle of depression of 44 degrees. What is the width of the spill? ( Find the horizontal distances away from the near edge and from the far edge. Then subtract these two amounts to get the distance across.)

I am having trouble translating this information into a picture. Could someone please show me how to sketch the triangle with the different angles of depression?
Thx. for any help.

 

[Loren]

Draw a right triangle with the right angle on the base. Label the vertex of the right angle, C. Label the other vertex on the base, B. Label the upper vertex A. The plane is at A. B is at the near side of the spill.
Now, draw a line through A that is parallel to BC. At some point on this line approximately above B somewhere, pick a point and label it D. One angle of depression is DAB which is 58°. Now extend BC out beyond B to a point we will label E. That is the far side of the spill. Draw AE. Angle DAE is the other angle of depression which is 44°. To find the measure of BE, subtract the measure of CB from the measure of CE. You work with triangles ACB and ACE to do so.