Question

A jetliner is traveling at 500 mph. How far does it travel in 10 seconds. I am trying to calculate how many cell towers a call would be passed off before the call is dropped... Why this is important, cell calls could not have been made in 2001 from any American Jetliner........
It can also be told as how may feet per minute as well. What ever is easier for you. Thanks in advance, D.

Answer 1

To solve this problem, we are going to use a method called dimensional analysis. This involves canceling out units by multiplying by fractions equivalent to 1. We begin with our given information, that the jet flies 500 miles in one hour, and we multiply that by the fraction 1 hour/60 minutes, which is equivalent to 1. We also have to multiply by 1 minute/60 seconds, because we are looking for the amount of miles the jet flies in seconds.

500 miles/1 hour * 1 hour/60 minutes * 1 minute/60 seconds = 500 miles/3,600 seconds

Now that we have our equivalent in seconds, we must multiply by 10 seconds in order to find our answer.

500 miles/3,600 seconds * 10 seconds = approximately 1.3888 miles

Therefore, the jet flies about 1.39 miles in 10 seconds.

Hope this helps!