Question

Mars is extremely far from the Earth. Scientists estimate that it could take astronauts 245​​​​​​​ days to travel from Earth to Mars. This is more than half of a year! Suppose astronauts travel to Mars when the distance between Earth and Mars is 108 million miles. If the trip takes 245 days, on average, how many miles would be traveled each day? In your calculator, write the large number as a multiple of a power of 10 to compute the answer. Round to the nearest mile.

Answer 1

Explanation:

We would liken the given scenario to distance speed and time relationship. The formula for determining average speed is

Total Distance/ total time

Since the distance between Earth and Mars is 108 million miles(108 × 10^6) the trip takes 245 days, then on average, the number of miles that the astronauts would travel each day would be

108 × 10^6/245 = 440816 miles per day

Writing in powers of 10, it becomes 4.4 × 10^5 miles per day

Rounding to the nearest whole number, it becomes 4 × 10^5 miles per day