Real-Life Math
In the world of planes and piloting, "night" is the time from evening civil twilight (ECT, just before it gets dark) to the beginning of morning civil twilight (MCT, when the first light comes up in the morning). Twilight is officially defined as that time right before the sun sets or rises, when you can still see.
You've been doing some very complex test maneuvers in Line East Technologies' latest, greatest plane model. While it's been a smooth ride so far, you've been instructed not to fly after the sun goes down. This is partly because the plane does not yet have perfectly safe built-in lanes of vision for the pilot. The absence of sunlight would complicate this problem.
How much time do you have left to fly? Here are the facts:
- Total light level is now at 84 points
- Time is 7:11 p.m.
- Total light levels decrease at 1.7 points per minute
When will total light levels reach "night status" of below 50?
"The math we use is usually the kind we use in elementary through junior high school," says military test pilot Eric Volstad. "It's all not that hard, really. In fact, it's kind of neat when we use math to determine relationships between a plane and the flying conditions and then find out at the end that we were right."