SOLUTION: The distance between the Earth and the Moon is approximately 1,260,000,000 feet, and a rocket can travel there at a speed of about 1,540,000 ft/min. How long will it take the rocke

Algebra ->  Customizable Word Problem Solvers  -> Travel -> SOLUTION: The distance between the Earth and the Moon is approximately 1,260,000,000 feet, and a rocket can travel there at a speed of about 1,540,000 ft/min. How long will it take the rocke      Log On

Ad: Over 600 Algebra Word Problems at edhelper.com


   



Question 1193577: The distance between the Earth and the Moon is approximately 1,260,000,000 feet, and a rocket can travel there at a speed of about 1,540,000 ft/min. How long will it take the rocket to go to the moon and back in minutes.
Answer by math_tutor2020(3816) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

1,260,000,000 = 1.26 billion
1,260,000,000 = 1260 million

1,540,000 = 1.54 million

Rephrasing the question a bit:
The distance between the Earth and the Moon is approximately 1260 million feet, and a rocket can travel there at a speed of about 1.54 million ft/min. How long will it take the rocket to go to the moon and back in minutes?

Recall that
distance+=+rate%2Atime
which can be arranged into
time+=+distance%2Frate

We simply divide the distance over the speed to get our answer. The "million" units cancel out and we divide the numeric portions only.
time+=+%28+distance+%29%2F%28+rate+%29







time+=+818.1818 minutes approximately
This doubles to 2*818.1818 = 1,636.3636 approximately because the rocket will travel the same distance (more or less) to come back to earth.

Rounded to the nearest whole number, it takes about 1636 minutes to do the full round trip.

Extra info:
1636 min = 1636/60 = 27.26667 hours approximately
27 hours = 27*60 = 1620 min
1636 min - 1620 min = 16 min
1636 min = 1620 min + 16 min
1636 min = 27 hr + 38 min
Or in other words, the round trip duration is a little over a full day (24 hours)