Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2025 January 13#Absolute value inequality

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January 13

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Absolute value inequality

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A meteorite is 600ft from a satellite and travelling toward the satellite at 42ft/sec. At what times will the meteorite be less than 50ft away from the satellite? Write an appropriate absolute value inequality for the given situation and solve: Let|42t-600|<50 and 42t-600<50 and 42t-600>-50. Thus, 13.10<t<15.48. Afrazer123 (talk) 22:21, 13 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

What is the question?
The given data do not specify where the meteorite is at time t = 0, and also not with which speed the satellite is moving. Your solution is based on the (not unreasonable) assumptions that the person who drew up this assignment meant t = 0 to be the initial moment when the meteorite is 600ft away from the satellite, and that the speed of 42ft/s is the speed of the meteorite relative to the satellite. Your solution assumes that the meteorite will not hit the satellite, but pass by it. Under these assumptions, the derived inequations are correct, as is your solution, although not with exact values but with numeric values rounded to two decimals.
If the meteorite hits the satellite, we don't know what happens after t = 14.29. If the satellite disintegrates, the notion of the distance between the bodies becomes meaningless.  --Lambiam 23:59, 13 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Please do your own homework.
Welcome to Wikipedia. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misinterpretation, but it is our aim here not to do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn nearly as much as doing it yourself. Please attempt to solve the problem or answer the question yourself first. If you need help with a specific part of your homework, feel free to tell us where you are stuck and ask for help. If you need help grasping the concept of a problem, by all means let us know.
This is additionally the Reference desk for computing and electronics-related topics, not mathematics. --Slowking Man (talk) 06:11, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
But is it homework? Homework formulates an exercise, often in the form of a problem, asking for its solution. It is not usual for homework to contain the detailed solution to a stated problem. What is then the exercise?  --Lambiam 10:32, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe they forgot the rest of the problem? Or maybe it's just someone/somebot sloppily copy-pasting stuff from the Web to try and waste people's time. --Slowking Man (talk) 05:18, 16 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think it's not homework. They might be sending stuff into space. Gnu779 (talk) 12:22, 16 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
📐 Afrazer123 (talk) 21:31, 17 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
📐 Afrazer123 (talk) 21:33, 17 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
📐 Afrazer123 (talk) 21:35, 17 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The inequality problem was not school homework. I apologize for the mix-up. I was only checking my answer. Afrazer123 (talk) 21:40, 17 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, thank me for saving you. Someone got confused. 🪐🛰 Gnu779 (talk) 09:43, 18 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]