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Radio signals travel at a rate of 3 x 10^8 meters per second. How many seconds will it take for a radio signal to travel from a satellite to the surface of the Earth if the satellite is orbiting at a height of 7.5 x 10^6 meters?

1 Answer

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Well Explanation:

We can use the formula:

distance = speed x time

to find the time it takes for a radio signal to travel from a satellite to the surface of the Earth.

In this case, the distance is the total distance traveled by the radio signal, which is the distance from the satellite to the surface of the Earth.

The distance from the satellite to the surface of the Earth is the sum of the radius of the Earth (6,371 km or 6.371 x 10^6 m) and the height of the satellite above the Earth's surface (7.5 x 10^6 m).

So the distance from the satellite to the surface of the Earth is:

distance = radius of the Earth + height of the satellite
distance = 6.371 x 10^6 m + 7.5 x 10^6 m
distance = 13.871 x 10^6 m

Now we can use the formula:

distance = speed x time

to find the time it takes for the radio signal to travel this distance. Rearranging the formula, we get:

time = distance / speed

Substituting the values we have found, we get:

time = 13.871 x 10^6 m / (3 x 10^8 m/s)
time = 0.0462 seconds (rounded to four decimal places)

Therefore, it will take approximately 0.0462 seconds (or 46.2 milliseconds) for a radio signal to travel from a satellite orbiting at a height of 7.5 x 10^6 meters to the surface of the Earth
User Narendra Prasath
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