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If a planet is 93,341,952 km away and you use a space shuttle, which travels at a speed of 28,000 km/hr to get there, how many days would it take to reach your destination?

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Divide distance by speed. That will give you the time in hours. Then divide by $24$ to get days. Unrealistic problem, no real spacecraft would go in a straight line. Nor at constant speed. – André Nicolas May 24 '12 at 0:31
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Title/body disconnect --- Deimos isn't a planet. – Gerry Myerson May 24 '12 at 4:42

1 Answer

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Good hint 1: Travelling at a constant speed, time is distance divided by speed.

Good hint 2: You may need to adjust between hours and days.

Bad hint 3: Planets move relative to each other.

Bad hint 4: Martian days are slightly longer than Earth days.

Bad hint 5: You may need to accelerate and decelerate.

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Maybe one more? Really Bad Hint : Interplanetary travel usually requires you to "slingshot" yourself using gravitational fields of larger planets (Called gravity assist). Also, why the mathematica tag? – Inquest May 24 '12 at 2:58
What makes you think you can get there w/ a space shuttle? – alancalvitti May 24 '12 at 4:38
Actually you can't go anywhere with a space shuttle any more: they've all been retired. But they could never go higher than 1000 km or so above the earth's surface. – Robert Israel May 24 '12 at 6:16

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