Center Focus

How Long Would It Take?

  1. Provide the following information in a chart for your students:
    • speed of sound: 1088 feet per second
    • speed of light: 186,000 miles per second
    • jet traveling at Mach 2 (twice speed of sound): 2176 feet per second
    • cheetah: 70 miles per hour
    • garden snail: 0.03 miles per hour
    • fastest car (Thrust SSC): 763 miles per hour
    • 747 Jumbo Jet: 520 miles per hour
    • distance from Earth to Moon: 238,856 miles
  2. Pose the following question:

    How many hours would it take for each of the above to get from the earth to the moon?

  3. Your students will need to convert the speeds listed above to miles per hour first. There are 5,280 feet per mile and 3600 seconds in one hour.
  4. The distance from the earth to the moon is 238,856 miles.
  5. Have your kids record the information in chart format from longest to shortest time.