Question

During an experiment, a signal from a spaceship reached the ground station in five minutes. What was the distance of the spaceship from the ground station? The signal travels at the speed of light, that is, 3 × 10⁸m/s.

Answer 1

Step 1: Given

Time taken by the signal to reach the ground station = 5 minutes

= 5 x 60 seconds

= 300 seconds.

Speed of signal = 3 x 10⁸ m/s

Step 2: Formula used

$Totaldis\tan ce=Speed\times Time$

Step 3: Finding the distance of the spaceship from the ground station

Total distance = $3x{10}^{8}x300$ = $9\times {10}^{10}m$

Hence, the distance of the spaceship from the ground station is $9\times {10}^{10}m$.