A spaceship is traveling to meet an asteroid. The spaceship is traveling away fr

Question

A spaceship is traveling to meet an asteroid. The spaceship is traveling away from the earth at 5 × 10^5m/s, straight toward the asteroid that is traveling toward the earth at the same speed. To determine the distance to the asteroid a radar signal traveling at the speed of light leaves the ship. The radar leaves the ship when the ship and asteroid are 3 × 10^8m apart. After the radar leaves the ship, it travels to the asteroid and bounces back. It then comes back to the ship, and bounces back off the ship. The radar keeps bouncing back and forth between the ship and asteroid until they collide (with the distance getting shorter and shorter each time.). How much distance has the light traveled back and forth between the two before they collide?

Explanation / Answer

Radio frequency energy travels at the speed of light approximately 162000 nautical miles per second so 1kt=.51444444444mp/s

162000nautical miles/sec=83339.99999928 m/s

D=Vd/(v1+v2)

=(83339.999x3x108)/((5x108)+(5x108))=2.500x1013/(10x105)=1.5x10-8m/s

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