# Trig problem

## Homework Statement

Assuming that the earth describes in one year a circle, of 92500000 mile radius, whose center is the sun, how many miles does the earth travel in a year?

## The Attempt at a Solution

How does knowing the radius of the earth help me with this problem? I dont need the radius of the earth I need to know the distance from the earth to the sun which will be the radius.... then I can solve it...
Is this correct?

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gb7nash
Homework Helper

## Homework Statement

Assuming that the earth describes in one year a circle, of 92500000 mile radius, whose center is the sun, how many miles does the earth travel in a year?
If I'm reading this correctly, for the sake of this problem, 92500000 miles is the distance between the sun and the earth. The earth travels around the sun in a circular orbit, so 92500000 miles is the radius. How do you think we obtain the number of miles the earth travels around the sun in a year?

rock.freak667
Homework Helper

## The Attempt at a Solution

How does knowing the radius of the earth help me with this problem? I dont need the radius of the earth I need to know the distance from the earth to the sun which will be the radius.... then I can solve it...
Is this correct?
That radius is not the radius of the Earth. The orbit is circular, so that radius is the distance from the Earth to the Sun. So you just need to find the distance using the radius.

symbolipoint
Homework Helper
Gold Member
So based on the description, same formula as for a circle. You know the formula for circumference? Just note that the orbit of the Earth to the Sun might in fact be more like an ellipse.

The wording just through me off... I was thinking that the distance 92500000 was the dis. from earth to sun, even though I read it as the radius of the earth..