An astronaut in a spacecraft looks out her window and observes a comet travel in the opposite direction at a relative speed of 237 m/s. The velocity of the spacecraft is 114 m/s directly away from the sun. What is the comet's velocity relative to the sun? Assume that motion away from the sun is in the positive direction.

Question

anonymous · Answer

It would be

114 m/s - 237 m/s = -123 m/s

This would be the real speed of the comet, and since speed can't be negative, relative to the sun, the speed would be 123 m/s