Question

The earth orbits around the sun once a year in a nearly circular orbit of radius 1.5x108km. Determine:

Angular speed of the earth? give your answer in rad/day.
The tangential speed of the earth? (km/day)
Distance traveled in one day (km)

Answer 1

Angular speed of the earth: 0.0172 rad/day

Tangential speed of the earth: 29.8 km/day

Distance traveled in one day: 247.5 km. This is because the circumference of the earth's orbit is 2πr, or 2π x 1.5 x 108, which equals 942 x 106 km. Dividing this by 365 gives 247.5 km.