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During descent, the 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter was measured at 187,000 feet above the surface, a height that had been calculated in the wrong unit system. Using 1 m = 3.281 ft, what is 187,000 feet in kilometers?
A16 km
B18 km
C57 km
D614 km
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. 57 km
1. Convert feet to meters: 187,000 ft / 3.281 ft per m = 57,000 m.
2. Convert meters to kilometers: 57,000 m / 1000 = 57 km.
3. 614 km would require dividing by roughly 0.3 instead of 3.281, an order of magnitude too large.
_Source: OpenStax Physics (CC BY 4.0), Ch 2 "Motion in One Dimension", section 2.1 Relative Motion, Distance, and Displacement_
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