Question

In a weightless environment, an astronaut lose about 1.5% calcium in their bodies per month. Suppose some astronauts flew to Mars. Assuming the astronauts did not lose or gain calcium while on Mars, they would lose 17% of the calcium tin their bodies due to the round trip flight. Estimate the number of months the round trip flight would take.

Answer 1

12.3 months

Explanation:

You want the number of months (m) such that ...

1 - 17% = (1 -1.5%)^m

Taking logarithms:

log(0.83) = m·log(0.985)

m = log(0.83)/log(0.985) ≈ 12.3 . . . . months