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In May 2019, the distance between Earth and Mars was 3.9 × 10⁷ km - Edexcel - GCSE Maths - Question 13 - 2019 - Paper 3
Question 13
In May 2019, the distance between Earth and Mars was 3.9 × 10⁷ km. In May 2019, a signal was sent from Earth to Mars. Assuming that the signal sent from Earth to Ma... show full transcript
Worked Solution & Example Answer:In May 2019, the distance between Earth and Mars was 3.9 × 10⁷ km - Edexcel - GCSE Maths - Question 13 - 2019 - Paper 3
Step 1
how long did the signal take to get to Mars?
Answer
To find the time it takes for the signal to travel from Earth to Mars, we use the formula:
ext{Time} = rac{ ext{Distance}}{ ext{Speed}}Given that:
- Distance = 3.9 × 10⁷ km
- Speed = 3 × 10³ km/s
Calculating the time:
ext{Time} = rac{3.9 imes 10^7 ext{ km}}{3 imes 10^3 ext{ km/s}} = 1.3 imes 10^4 ext{ seconds}Step 2
How will this affect your answer to part (a)?
Answer
Since the speed of the signal sent from Earth to Mars was actually less than 3 × 10³ km per second, the time calculated in part (a) would be too short.
The signal will therefore take longer to reach Mars than the calculated time of 1.3 × 10⁴ seconds. This means the actual time could be greater than this value, indicating that the earlier assumption about the speed was incorrect.