When converting from kilometers to miles, remember that the conversion factor is 1.61 kilometers to 1 mile.
Airplane, see solution.
Practice makes perfect
We know that the airplane is at an elevation of 5.5 miles and that the submarine is at - 10.9 kilometers below sea level. We want to know which vehicle is closer to sea level. Let's start by converting the elevation of the submarine from kilometers to miles so that the units are the same for both measurements. Recall that the conversion factor from kilometers to miles is 1mi1.61km.
- 10.9km* 1mi1.61km
Let's evaluate the expression for the depth of the submarine.
We found that the elevation of the submarine is about - 6.8 miles. Let's draw the airplane and the submarine on a number line!
We can find the absolute value of the elevations to see which vehicle is closer to sea level. Recall that the absolute value of a real number a is the distance between a and 0 on the number line. Let's calculate the distance between each vehicle and sea level.
Airplane's Distance: |5.5|= 5.5
Submarine's Distance: |- 6.8|= 6.8
We found that the airplane is 5.5 miles above sea level and that the submarine is 6.8 miles below sea level. We will now compare the distances to find which vehicle is closer to sea level.
5.5 mi < 6.8 mi
We know that 5.5 miles is less than 6.8 miles. This means that the airplane is closer to sea level.
