Of course rockets are fast, right? The speediest one carrying a person zoomed at over 4,000 miles an hour! But rockets ride very slowly on the ground. Spacecraft are rolled from NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building to the launchpad at just 2-3 miles an hour — slower than you can walk! We’re guessing rockets have more fun flying in the sky.
Lace up: If a rocket rolls 2 miles an hour and you walk 1 mile an hour faster, how fast are you?
Jog: If you flew at 4,000 miles per hour for a whole 2-hour playdate, how far would you fly?
Sprint: If you flew for 2 hours with your friends and then another 11 hours overnight, how many hours have you flown?
Hurdle: If the 78-foot-wide Endeavour rolled down a street 50 feet wide, by how many feet did the space shuttle stick out on each side (assuming it rolled right down the middle)?
High Jump: If you flew the 25,000 miles around Earth at 4,000 miles per hour starting at 7:00 pm, would you land back home the same day you started?
Answers:
Lace up: 3 miles an hour.
Jog: 8,000 miles.
Sprint: 13 hours.
Hurdle: 14 feet on each side, since it’s 28 feet too wide and the two sides split that.
High Jump: No, because In 6 hours you’ll travel 24,000 miles, which already takes you to 1:00 in the morning the next day. The last 1,000 miles take you just another 15 minutes (1/4 of an hour at 4,000 miles per hour).
