Question

The Curiosity Rover has recently landed on Mars and likes to send Twitter updates on its progress. If a tweet is posted 14 minutes after it was sent, how far is Curiosity from Earth?

Answer 1

The Curiosity Rover has recently landed on Mars and likes to send Twitter updates on its progress. If a tweet is posted 14 minutes after it was sent, how far is Curiosity from Earth?

Given 1 min = 60 s

time (t) = 20 minutes * 60s/min = 1200s

Distance (D) = Velocity (v) * t

v = Speed of light = 3 x 10⁸ m/s

D =  3E8 x 1200

 

D = 3.6E11 m

 

Curiosity is 3.6E11 m from Earth.

D = 3.6E11 m