The earth is 93,000,000 miles from the sun and transverses its orbit, which is nearly circular, every 365.25 days.
how do i figure this out?
2007-01-20 14:00:59 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
This will produce an approximation close enough for most purposes. Okay: what do you call that 93,000,000 mile figure?
That is the approximate average radius of the earth's orbit around the sun. To get the velocity at which the earth travels along the line of its orbit, what do you need to know? You need to know how far it travels in the known period of time, right?
How do we find that from the radius? By multiplying the radius times 2 and then by the value of Pi, which is the famous ratio between the diameter of a circle and its circumference. Okay?
Circumference = Diameter times 3.1415926 (a good estimate of Pi)
And diameter is twice radius, right?
So that's 186,000,000 miles. Multiply that by 3.1415926 to get 584,336,224 miles. That is the distance the earth travels each year.
Now what? By what number do you divide that to get the number of miles per hour? First, how many hours in 365.25 days? 8766, right? Any problem with how I got that figure?
Now, can you take it from here? How do you use the figures we have come up with to get the miles per hour? I am sure you can do it.
That's right: it's 584,336,224 miles divided by 8766 hours. Did you get 66,659 mph? You're right. Don't stick your head out the window.
2007-01-20 14:23:43 · answer #1 · answered by aviophage 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The generally agreed upon figure is 29.77 km/second which is approximately 65,000 miles per hour.
The Earth's orbit is elliptical but it is very close to being circular. An average radius is used to compute the Circumference of the Earth's orbit and divided by 365.25 days. Then this is converted into whatever units one desires.
2007-01-20 14:27:24 · answer #2 · answered by ironduke8159 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The average distance from the Earth to the Sun is 149,597,890 km. Therefore in one year the Earth travels a distance of 2*Pi*(149,597,890)km. This means that the velocity is about:
velocity=2*Pi*(149,597,890)km/1 year and if we convert that to more meaningful units (knowing there is 365 days in a year, and 24 hours per day) we get:
velocity=107,300 km/h (or if you prefer 67,062 miles per hour)
So the Earth moves at about 100,000 km/h around the Sun (which is 1000 times faster than the speeds we go at on a highway!) I hope you understood..âº
2007-01-20 14:23:41 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think I learned this in 7th grade. I think the linear velocity of the earth in its orbit is about 29 mph.
I'm not sure of the equation that was used. Good Luck!
2007-01-20 14:04:50 · answer #4 · answered by Juniata P 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
d = r *t
d = 2 * pi * 93,000,000
t = 365.25 *24
2pi*93,000,000 = r * 365.25*24
r = 2pi*93,000,000/365.25*24
2007-01-20 14:04:32 · answer #5 · answered by Modus Operandi 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
One has to be alot smarter than me to figure that one out.
2007-01-20 14:04:47 · answer #6 · answered by Docta Jones 4 · 0⤊ 4⤋
hmmm. interesting.. i'll try to look for it..
2007-01-20 14:08:03 · answer #7 · answered by iamdeyb 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
29739.2m/s
2007-01-20 14:15:31 · answer #8 · answered by 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋