A radio signal travels at 3.00 ⋅ 108 meters per second. How many seconds will 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 3.54 ⋅ 107 meters? Show your work.

1 answer

We can start by using the formula:

distance = speed × time

In this case, the distance we want to calculate is the distance from the satellite to the surface of the Earth, which is the sum of the radius of the Earth and the height of the satellite above it:

distance = radius of Earth + height of satellite
distance = 6.37 × 10^6 + 3.54 × 10^7
distance = 4.18 × 10^7 meters

The speed of the radio signal is given as 3.00 × 10^8 meters per second, so we can set up the equation:

4.18 × 10^7 = 3.00 × 10^8 × time

Solving for time, we get:

time = distance / speed
time = 4.18 × 10^7 / 3.00 × 10^8
time ≈ 0.139 seconds

Therefore, it will take approximately 0.139 seconds for a radio signal to travel from the satellite to the surface of the Earth.