Question

Approximately how far apart were north america and europe 200,000 years ago

Answer 1

The correct answer is - 1,180 km.

North America and Europe move away from one another, though on the other end of the plates, the Eurasian and the North American plates are actually merging. Since the rate of moving away is 2 cm per year, and the current distance is 1,184 km between North America and Europe, the distance between them 200,000 years ago was 1,180 km.

To get to the result we only need to multiply the number of years with the annual movement

2 x 200,000 = 400,000

Then divide the result with 100,000, as that is how much cm are in one km

400,000 / 100,000 = 4

And we get 4 km, in this case 4 km less, thus the distance between the two, 200,000 years ago, was 1,180 km.