Mission Control sends a signal to a Mars robot to travel to a mysterious rock 52.8 meters away. A return signal 59.0 minutes later tells scientists that the robot is at the rock. It took the signal 9.5 minutes to get from Earth to Mars, and the same time to get back. What was the robot's average speed in meters per minute?

Question

Mathematics

Josephine Russell

7 January, 14:32

Mission Control sends a signal to a Mars robot to travel to a mysterious rock 52.8 meters away. A return signal 59.0 minutes later tells scientists that the robot is at the rock. It took the signal 9.5 minutes to get from Earth to Mars, and the same time to get back. What was the robot's average speed in meters per minute?

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Eliezer Bradford · Answer 1

The response time includes the round-trip signal time plus the robot's travel time.

59 min = 2 * (9.5 min) + travel time

59 min - 2 * (9.5 min) = travel time = 40 min

The speed is distance / travel time

speed = (52.8 m) / (40 min) = 1.32 m/min

The robot's average speed was 1.32 meters per minute.