Question: The position of an aircraft relative to an observer on the ground is estimated by measuring its distance r from the observer and the angle θ that the line of ed Values sight from the observer to the aircraft makes with the horizontal. Suppose that the measurements, denoted by R and , are subject to random errors and are independent of each other. The altitude of the aircraft is then estimated to be Y = R sin .
a. Find an approximate expression for the variance of Y .
b. For given r, at what value of θ is the estimated altitude most variable?