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5 votes
A rocket speed is 2 1/3 miles per second. how fast is this in miles per hour?

User Boileau
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2 Answers

5 votes
You can solve this by setting up ratios that when cross-multiplied cancel out the units. For example, having a value with a unit of miles in the numerator and seconds in the denominator multiplied by a value with a unit of seconds in the numerator and minutes in the denominator would cancel out the seconds and leave you with a ratio of miles over minutes.

*You can convert seconds to minutes (if seconds was on the bottom of a fraction) by multiplying by the number of seconds in a minute over one minute.*

Multiply the numerators and denominators separately, cross out canceled units, and simplify if needed. "Crossed out" units are in italics. Units that are kept are in bold.

2+(1/3) miles
x 60 seconds x 60 minutes = 8400 miles
1 second 1 minute 1 hour 1 hour

8400 miles per hour
User Fabien Thetis
by
7.9k points
4 votes
(2 1/3 miles/sec)*(3600 sec/hr) = 8400 mph . . . this is just using dimensional analysis to convert units
User Charan Ghate
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7.9k points

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