Question

The moon is about 384000 km from the Earth and its path around the Earth is nearly circular. Find the circumference of the path travelled by the moon every month.

Answer 1

Hint: To solve this problem, we will use the fact that the moon would revolve around the Earth every month. Thus for solving this question, we use the formula of circumference of the circle. This is given by $2\pi r$. Here, r is the radius of the circle and $\pi $ is a constant with an approximate value of 3.14. In this case, r would be the distance between the Earth and the moon.

Complete step-by-step answer:


Before we begin solving the problem, we try to understand the basics of the definition of the circumference of the circle. Circumference of the circle is basically the perimeter of the circle. Basically, circumference is the measurement of the boundary across any two-dimensional circular shape including a circle. In simple terms, it is the distance across the periphery of the circle. This is explained through the below figure. (the distance around the periphery of the circle below is the perimeter and the radius is the distance from centre of the circle to the periphery)

Now in the problem, it is given that the moon is about 384000 km from the Earth and travels around it in a circular path. Thus, in this case, the radius of the circle is 384000 km. Now, using the formula of the circumference, we get,
Circumference = $2\pi r$
Circumference = $2\pi \times 384000$
Circumference = 2412743.158 km
Hence, the circumference of the path travelled by the moon every month is 2412743.158 km.

Note: The application of the circumference of the circle is useful since it is seen in many applications. For example, if you run around a circular track and complete a round, we can calculate the distance covered by using the formula of the circumference of the circle.