Homework Help: geometry

Posted by sarah on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 10:28pm.

The Hubble Space Telescope is orbiting Earth 600 km above Earth's surface. Earth's radius is about 6370 km. Use the Pythagorean Theorem to find he distance a from the telescope to Earth's horizon. Round your answer to the nearest ten kilometers.

geometry - bobpursley, Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 10:33pm
Draw the figure. Note it is a right triangle, with hypotenuse of (Rearth+altitude), legs of Rearth, and of what you want to find.
geometry - drwls, Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 10:36pm
There is a right trangle formed by points at the center of the Earth, the HST satellite and the point where a line from the satellite is tangent to the Earth. The hypotenuse (c) goes from the HST to the center of the Earth, and its length is 600 + 6370= 6970 km. The side that you want is
b^2 = c^2 - a^2, where a is the radius of the Earth.
geometry - drwls, Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 1:00pm
b^2 = (6970)^2 - (6370)^2
= 8.004*10^6
b = 2829 km

Answer this Question

Related Questions

math - the international space station orbits 350 km above earth's surface. ...
physics - The Earth’s radius is about 6380 km. The space shuttle is ...
physics - The Earth’s radius is about 6380 km. The space shuttle is ...
physics - The Hubble Space Telescope orbits Earth 621 km above Earth's ...
Physics - the hubble telescope has a mass of 1.5 x 10^4 kg and its orbiting the ...
Physics - The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth at an approximate altitude...
Physics - The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth at an approximate altitude...
Physics help please - The space shuttle orbits at a distance of 335 km above the...
Physics please help - How far from the center of the Earth (in km) is the center...
physics - A spy satellite was launched into a circular orbit with a height of ...

For Further Reading

First Name:
School Subject:
Answer: