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Two satellites leave the earth’s atmosphere and begin to orbit the earth. They start in line with each other and both orbit in a clock wise direction.The inner satellite makes one revolution every three years and the outer satellite makes one revolution every nine years. When will they next form a straight line with them selves and the earth?
4 years 8 months later or accounting for fluctuations in time dilation relativity 4 years 7 months 30 days 23 hours 56 minutes later as a minimum due to the slower moving object effectively encounter a differing period of time contrary to the faster one ( theory of relativity ).
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I was useless at maths, I cant count the amount of times I failed my exams :)
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You could well be right mafia but my answer is 27 months. Clue here is in the 3 and 9 your looking at thirds and ninths and returning to a straight line. It’s a simple 2d quiz which has a specific answer. The orbital image is just to get one focused in an entertaining way on a mathematical puzzle. You may be right in your conclusion but what if a meteor hits one of the satellites? what if one of the satellites breaks down? What if space junk hits one of the satellites? What if the sun dies? The questions just go on and on.
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You could well be right mafia but my answer is 27 months. Clue here is in the 3 and 9 your looking at thirds and ninths and returning to a straight line. It’s a simple 2d quiz which has a specific answer. The orbital image is just to get one focused in an entertaining way on a mathematical puzzle. You may be right in your conclusion but what if a meteor hits one of the satellites? what if one of the satellites breaks down? What if space junk hits one of the satellites? What if the sun dies? The questions just go on and on.
I cant see how this is correct – think about it , if one satellite ( the faster one ) takes 3 years to orbit the earth then using common sense it must take at least 3 years before it begins a second circuit in order to lap the slower moving one and line up with it again.
If they both start at the same time like runners going round a circuit , the question is asking when does the quicker satellite lap /pass the slower one so as it takes 4 years and 8 months to lap it – that is the answer. If your answer is 27 months in some kind of quiz book – it’s wrong. It takes 3 years for the quicker satellite to complete one orbit so how can it take less than that to catch the slower moving satellite again?
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Infact knock 2 months off , my answer is 4 years and 6 months as the faster satellite will be halfway round its second circuit and the slower one with be halfway round its first
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The 3 and the 9 is irrelevant Mister Q in being factors of 27 , be interesting to see what dracs answer is … my final answer is 4 years 6 months for when the faster satellite catches up with the slower one again.
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I drew a diagram for this quiz to work it out. I couldn’t work it out in my head and it might take some time to prove. Earth is stationery. The 2 satellites go at their different speeds. I must admit…….i thought ..hmm it’s a maths puzzle and 3 and 9 is a dead give away. One way to picture the satellites is like teeth on a wheel. One has 9 teeth and one has 3 teeth. We know the earth has no teeth so the equation lies with the satellites in getting back to their original position. This quiz had a time limit….i’ll check it out……i think we all lost. OK time limit was 15 minutes to work it out.The 2 satellites were to the left of earth at the beginning and went in a clock wise direction
Let’s keep this as a cold case..yet to be solved with a 100 percent verdict.
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Nothing is irrelevant in my opinion. That’s how answers or conclusions are formed.
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