Astronomical Algebra

Algebra Level 2

Comet A and Comet B are headed straight for each other and they are 6,240m apart. If Comet A is traveling at 980 m/s and Comet B is traveling at 1,100 m/s, how many seconds before they meet?


The answer is 3.

Kian Cameron by Kian Cameron , 16, USA

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

It should be mentioned that no gravitational forces of interaction are present. In such a case relative velocity of one comet with respect to the other is 980 + 1100 = 2080 m / s 980+1100=2080m/s and the required time is 6240 / 2080 = 3 s e c . 6240/2080=3 sec.

1 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused

I didn't even think about that and probably should have considered it. To clarify, there aren't any gravitational forces involved and the problem is simply an algebra based one. Thanks for mentioning that.

Kian Cameron - 1 year, 9 months ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...