Question

According to Star Trek, Warp 8 is 8 times the speed of light. If the star ship Voyager can travel at Warp 8, how many miles can it travel in a year? Write your final answer in scientific notation and show at least one step of your work.

Answer 1

what is the speed of light?

Answer 2

google it if you don't know and post it here.

Answer 3

ttully, are you interested in the answer or not? I need your feedback to help you.

Answer 4

yes i will google it

Answer 5

the speed of light = 299 792 458 m / s

Answer 6

okay. to make matters simple, we generally assume the speed of light to be 300000000 m/s or 3X10^8 m/s
so, what is Warp 8 then? What is that speed equal to?

Answer 7

just tell me what Warp 8 means. Unless you don't want the answer. In that case I won't waste your time or mine.

Answer 8

I dont know what warp 8 means

Answer 9

it is given in the first sentence of the problem. read it.

Answer 10

8 times the speed of light

Answer 11

8 X 299 792 458

Answer 12

you must always say what that number means. 8 X 299 792 458 could mean feet, or pounds or number of fish you caught last year. what is it?

Answer 13

8warp X 299792458m/s

Answer 14

no, you should say Warp 8 = 8 X 299792458m/s

Answer 15

okay. so we have the speed. now, what is the distance traveled in a year?
the formula for distance is speed X time.
so how much time is one year?

Answer 16

2398339664m/s

Answer 17

okay, that is the speed. now, what is the time?

Answer 18

not sure

Answer 19

okay. how long is a year?

Answer 20

12 months

Answer 21

okay. and how many days in each year?

Answer 22

360

Answer 23

really? when was the last time you had 360 days in a year. A year has 365 days. Look it up.

Answer 24

anyway, how many hours in a day?

Answer 25

24

Answer 26

and how many seconds in an hour?

Answer 27

60

Answer 28

are you sure? 1 hour is 60 seconds long?

Answer 29

60min

Answer 30

right, and each minute has how many seconds?

Answer 31

60

Answer 32

okay. so a minute has 60 seconds. and hour has 60 minutes, a day has 24 hours. a year has 365 days.
so the total number of seconds in a year is 60 X 60 X 24 X 365

Answer 33

so give me the number of seconds in a year. Multiply all that using your calculator.

Answer 34

31536000

Answer 35

okay good. so if you are traveling at warp 8 it means that you travel 2398339664 meters each second. so how much distance would you travel in 31536000 seconds?

Answer 36

7.563403964

Answer 37

oh. you travel 7.563403964? what is that? is it 7.5 feet? or 7.5 kilometers, or 7.5 pounds of meat? or 7.5 chips?

Answer 38

miles

Answer 39

so your answer is 7.5 miles?

Answer 40

no it is 7.5miles X 10 to the 9th power

Answer 41

is that right? and how did you get that answer?

Answer 42

I dont know if that rigt or not. But I mad the 7.563403964 into scientifice notation

Answer 43

well, if I told you I travel 1 foot every second, how much distance will I cover in 10 seconds?

Answer 44

10ft

Answer 45

why not 10 miles?

Answer 46

because you said 1ft a second

Answer 47

right. if you travel at warp 8 speed it means you travel 2398339664 METERS each second, how much distance would you cover in 31536000 seconds. Why did you say 7.5 X 10 ^9 MILES?

Answer 48

how come you changed meters to miles?

Answer 49

because it has to be in scietifice notation

Answer 50

what did you think scientific notation means?

Answer 51

its so you dont have to use so many numbers

Answer 52

actually, don't worry about the scientific notation now. just tell me how many METERS it travels in one year.

Answer 53

7.7m

Answer 54

7.5meters

Answer 55

are you sure? it travels just 7.5 meters in one whole year?

Answer 56

no im consfused now

Answer 57

if my speed is 10 meters per second, how many meters would I travel in 10 seconds?

Answer 58

are you familiar with meters? it is just a measure of distance. One meter is roughly equal to one yard. so don't get confused by the word 'meter'

Answer 59

yes

Answer 60

so answer my question: if my speed is 10 meters per second, how many meters would I travel in 10 seconds?

Answer 61

10

Answer 62

wrong. do you know how distance is calculated? distance is speed X time

Answer 63

so if my speed is 10m/s, how much distance would I cover in 10 seconds?

Answer 64

100

Answer 65

100 what? feet, seconds, pies?

Answer 66

meter

Answer 67

okay. so if my speed is 10 m/s, I travel 100 meters in 10 seconds.

Using the same logic,
if my speed is 2398339664 m/s , how many meters do I travel in 31536000 seconds?

Answer 68

7.563403964E16

Answer 69

okay. so 7.563403964E16 meters is the answer. That is also the scientific notation.
Scientific notation simply means you take a number, say 123455 and express it as 1.23455 X 10^5.

so the answer in your case is 7.563403964E16 which can also be written as 7.563403964 X 10^16

Answer 70

all in meters.

Answer 71

The letter E in the answer means you multiply the number before E with 10^ the number after E
so 7.563403964E16 means 7.563403964 multiplied by 10^16.
so your answer in scientific notation is 7.563403964E16 meters or 7.563403964 X 10^16 meters.

Answer 72

http://www.chem.tamu.edu/class/fyp/mathrev/mr-scnot.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_notation

scientific notation is just a way to represent NUMBERS. It does not mean that you should change meters to miles or anything like that.

Answer 73

ok thank you

Answer 74

you are welcome. note that E means the exponent. it doesn't always have to be 10.