Q. During an experiment , a signal from a spaceship reached the ground station in five minutes . What was the distance of the spaceship from the ground station ? The signal travels at the speed of light , that is , 3 x 10⁸ m s⁻¹ .

we know that: speed = Distance travelled / Time taken

Here , speed = 3 ×10⁸ m s⁻¹

Distance travelled = ?

And, TIME taken = 5 minutes

= 5 × 60 seconds

= 300 s

Now, putting the values of speed and time in the above formula, we get

3×10⁸ = Distance travelled / 300

So, Distance travelled = 3 × 10⁸ ×300m

. = 9× 10¹⁰m

thus, the distance of spaceship from the ground station is 9 × 10¹⁰ metres.