Radio signals travel at a rate of 3 × 108 meters per second. How many seconds would it take for a radio signal to travel from a satellite to the surface of Earth if the satellite is orbiting at a height of 3.6 × 107 meters? Which factor would be rate and which would be distance?
To calculate the time it takes for a radio signal to travel from the satellite to Earth's surface, we can use the formula:
Time = Distance / Rate
In this case, the distance is the height of the satellite's orbit above Earth's surface, which is 3.6 × 10^7 meters. The rate is the speed of radio signals, which is 3 × 10^8 meters per second.
Plugging in the values:
Time = 3.6 × 10^7 / (3 × 10^8) = 0.12 seconds
Therefore, it would take 0.12 seconds for a radio signal to travel from the satellite to Earth's surface.
In this case, the rate is the speed of the radio signal (3 × 10^8 meters per second), and the distance is the height of the satellite's orbit above Earth's surface (3.6 × 10^7 meters).