Yash Desai asked:
A satellite is in a circular orbit 225 km above the equator of the earth. How many kilometres must it travel for its longitude to change by 78.2°?
Assume the radius of the earth equals 6400 kilometres.
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3 Responses to “A satellite is in a circular orbit 225 km above the equator of the earth. How many kilometres must it travel?”
Add the altitude to the Earth’s radius to get the radius of the orbit.
Calculate the circumference of the circle, using 2*r*pi. Pi can be approximated to 3.14
Multiply that by 78.2/360, because there are 360 degrees in a circle.
It depends on the inclination of the orbit. Is it equatorial? Polar? Something in between?
If it’s equatorial, then you just need to work out the right proportion of the circumference.
The proportion would be 78.2 / 360
Can you do the maths? (as it sounds like your homework
If it’s an inclined orbit, you’d need more information about the inclination, ascending node and initial position.
Yes,you can Find something at