Question

During an experiment, a signal from a spaceship reached the ground station in five minutes. What was the distance of the speceship from the ground station ? The signal travels at the speed of light, that is, `3 xx 10^(8) m//s`.

Answer 1

We know that : Speed = `("Distance travelled")/("Time taken")`
Here, `" "` Speed = `3xx10^(8)` m `s^(-1)`
`" "` Distance travelled = ? `" "` (To be calculated)
And, `" "` Time taken = 5 minutes
`" "= 5xx60` seconds
`" "=300` s
Now, putting the value of speed and time in the above formula, we get :
`" "3xx10^(8)=("Distance travelled")/("300")`
So, `" "` Distance travelled `=3xx10^(8)xx300` m
`" "= 9xx10^(10)` m
Thus, the distance of spaceship from the ground station is `9xx10^(10)` metres.