Calculating Earth's Speed Around the Sun

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Homework Help Overview

The problem involves calculating the speed of Earth as it orbits the sun, given the radius of its orbit and the time taken for one complete cycle. The subject area pertains to circular motion and basic kinematics.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the calculation of distance using the circumference of Earth's orbit and the conversion of time from days to seconds. There is an initial attempt to compute speed using a formula, which is later questioned.

Discussion Status

The discussion has evolved with some participants confirming the calculation of the circumference and finding it leads to the correct speed. However, there is no explicit consensus on the initial method presented by the original poster.

Contextual Notes

Participants are working within the constraints of a homework assignment, which may limit the information and methods they can use. There is a mention of a discrepancy between the original poster's calculations and the expected answer.

1irishman
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Homework Statement



The Earth travels around the sun in a circle of radius 150 million km and does a complete cycle in about 365 days. Find its speed.

Homework Equations



v= d/t

The Attempt at a Solution



d = 1000m/1km x 150,000,000km = 1.5 x 10^11m
There are 31,536,000 seconds in 1year.
v = 1.5 x 10^11/31,536,000 = 4.7 x 10^18 they say this is wrong answer and the right answer is actually 29 800 m/s.
Please help? Thank you.
 
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Find the circumference of Earth's orbit. You used the radius.
 
Last edited:
d = circumfrence = 2piR= 2 * 3.1415 * 150 * 10^6km
t = 365 day.
s = d(in meters) / t(in seconds)
 
it's been solved...i calculated circumferance and it worked out to be the right answer. thank you!
 

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