A space shuttle 200 miles above the earth is orbiting the earth once every 12 hours. How far does the shuttle travel in 1 hour? (Assume the radius of the earth is 4,000 miles.) Give your answer as both an exact value and an approximation to three significant digits (see the figure below).
Edit ....[ Sorry..... I hit the wrong buttons on the calculator before !!!]
The distance traveled in one hour is given by:
d= r[theta] = 4200 [ 2pi/12] = 4200[pi / 6] = about 2199.1148575128552669 mi/hr =
2199.115 mi/hr to 3 sig. decimal digits
A space shuttle 200 miles above the earth is orbiting the earth once every 12 hours. How far does the shuttle travel in 1 hour? (Assume the radius of the earth is 4,000 miles.) Give your answer as both an exact value and an approximation to three significant digits
orbit = 2π⋅(4000+200) miles=2π⋅4200 miles
velocity = orbit12 hours=2π⋅4200 miles12 hours=π⋅4200 miles6 hours=700π⋅mileshour
The shuttle travel in 1 hour
700⋅π miles=2199.11485751 miles≈2199.115 miles