How long did radio commands take to travel from the Earth to Voyager as it passed Neptune?
Asked by:
Amanda
Answer
Well, radio waves are electromagnetic waves, so they travel at the speed of light, which is about 3x108 m/s. According to https://www.physlink.com/reference/astrophysical.cfm , Neptune is 4.5x1012 m away from the sun, and since Earth is only 1.5x10^11 m away from the sun, I'll just assume that we're about 4.5x1012 m away from Neptune.
This means that the radio signals took (4.5x1012 m) / (3x108 m/s) = 15,000 seconds (or a little over 4 hours) to get to the Voyager.
Answered by:
Gregory Ogin, Physics Undergraduate Student, UST, St. Paul, MN
'There is no inductive method which could lead to the fundamental concepts of physics. Failure to understand this fact constituted the basic philosophical error of so many investigators of the nineteenth century.'