The team monitoring a space probe exploring the outer solar system finds that radio trasmissions from the probe take 3.99 hours to reach earth. How distant (in meters) is the probe?
c = speed of light in a vacuum = 3*10^8 m/s approximately
3.99 hr * 3600 seconds/hr= 14364 = 1.4*10^4 s
distance =speed * time
= 3*10^8 * 1.4*10^4 = about 5 * 10^12 meters, quite far
To determine the distance to the probe, we can use the speed of light, which is approximately 299,792,458 meters per second. Since radio transmissions travel at the speed of light, we know that the time it takes for the transmissions to reach Earth is 3.99 hours.
To find the distance, we can use the equation: distance = speed × time.
First, let's convert 3.99 hours to seconds. There are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour, so:
3.99 hours × 60 minutes/hour × 60 seconds/minute = 14,364 seconds.
Now, we can calculate the distance:
distance = 299,792,458 meters/second × 14,364 seconds = 4,302,429,191,512 meters.
Therefore, the distance to the probe is approximately 4,302,429,191,512 meters.