I n the fall of 2018, northern California was shrouded in smoke. The Camp Fire, as it came to be called, raged in Butte County for two weeks. Hazardous air quality forced schools—some up to 100 miles away—to close for several days. It was the sixth deadliest wildfire in U.S. history, leaving 18,000 structures destroyed, 5 firefighters injured, and at least 85 people dead. As firefighters got the blaze under control, they turned to their newest tool: drones. A team of firefighters, police, rescue personnel, and private companies used the remotely operated aerial vehicles to take over 70,000 images of the scorched areas. Then they combined all this data to map the damage. Many fire departments have also started using drones during wildfires. Traditionally, fire departments send piloted helicopters and aircraft to get aerial views of a forest fire. But flying these larger crafts can be extremely expensive and put the operators’ lives in danger. “There’s less risk and it’s much cheaper for me to operate a drone,” says Paul Roberts, the division chief of special operations at the Boise Fire Department. They were authorized to use drones last summer. But wildfires aren’t the only places where drones can help in an emergency. People are using them to quickly assess damage from earthquakes and flooding. They also scan disaster areas to help search- and-rescue parties. For example, if a building’s roof is about to collapse, drones can quickly relay that information to emergency response teams. “All the real-time information is extremely valuable for us to make critical decisions with limited time,” says Roberts. Read on to learn more about lifesaving drones taking to the skies! —Lauren J. Young
GRAPHING RANGES An inequality compares quantities. Instead of an equal sign, inequalities use one of the four symbols in the chart below. You can also use inequalities to show ranges of values for categories. EXAMPLE: The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration says that drones must fly at an altitude from at least ground level (0 feet) to fewer than 400 feet. Express the height regulation as a range using inequalities where h represents the drone’s height. h < 400 Identify the larger value and which symbol to use to write this inequality.
Identify the smaller value and its symbol and place it to the left of the inequality.
0 ≤ h < 400
Graph it on a number line using the corresponding inequality symbols for each end of the range.
0 400
So the range of heights drones can fly is 0 ≤ h < 400.
SYMBOL MEANING WORD CLUES GRAPHING SYMBOL < less than below, fewer than, almost > greater than above, more than, over ≤ less than or equal to no more than, at most, maximum ≥ greater than or equal to no less than, at least, minimum
Use this information to write and graph the ranges related to operating drones as inequalities.
1 The Boise Fire Department likes to fly drones over a wildfire at an altitude above 200 but less than 400 feet high. Express the range as an inequality where h is the height of the drone.
2 Graph the inequality on the number line below.
Sessions 23 & 24 69
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