For a corner reflector to be effective, its surfaces must beprecisely perpendicu

Question

For a corner reflector to be effective, its surfaces must beprecisely perpendicular. Suppose the surfaces of a corner reflectorleft on the Moon's surface by the Apollo astronauts formed a90.00003° angle with each other. If alaser beam is bounced back to Earth from this reflector, how far(in kilometers) from its starting point will the reflected beamstrike Earth? For simplicity, assume the beam reflects from onlytwo sides of the reflector, and that it strikes the first surfaceat precisely 45°.
1 km

Explanation / Answer

We see the incident and reflected angles are :             90.00003° - 45.00000o = 45.00003o So , the laser beam deviates from proper path by   2( 45.00003o -   45.00000o )                                                                            = 2 ( 0.00003 )                                                                            = 0.00006o Hence =   0.00006o We have :             tan = y / x                 y   = x tan                       = 3.84 x 105 * tan  0.00006o        where x = Earth - Moon distance                      = 0.402 km Hope this helps u! Hence =   0.00006o We have :             tan = y / x                 y   = x tan                       = 3.84 x 105 * tan  0.00006o        where x = Earth - Moon distance                      = 0.402 km Hope this helps u!

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