Question

b. From where the shoes spilled (48°N, 161°W) to where they were found on May 22nd 1996 (54°N, 133°W), how many kilometers did they travel? How many days did they take to travel that distance (use April 30 as the date found)? What was their rate of travel in kilometers per hour?

Answer 1

To find kilometers using latitude and longitude:

distlon = lon2 - lon1   = 133-161 = -23

distlat = lat2 - lat1  = 54-48 = 6

a = (sin(distlat/2))^2 + cos(lat1) * cos(lat2) * (sin(distlon/2))^2  

a = (sin(6/2)^2 + cos(48)*cos(54)* sin(-23/2)^2

c = 2 * arctan2( sqroot(a), sqroot(1-a) )  

d = R * c (where R is the radius of the Earth, 6373 km's)

d = 2052 km's

April 30th to May 22nd is 23 days.

23 days x 24 hours per day = 552 hours.

Rate of travel = 2052 / 552 = 3.717 km per hour ( round answer as needed.)