Astronaut Math Problems

Kids can enjoy learning about math from the point of view of an astronaut by doing space related math problems. Students grades 6 through 9 can understand math through determining the surface area on a satellite, learn to read line graphs about magnetic disturbances, calculating the speed of solar and auroral events for viewing, and finding averages of the power of an auroral event recorded on a table. These math activities can be done individually or in groups.
Satellite Surface Area

The NASA Imager for Magnetosphere-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite is powered by solar panels covering the entire surface of the satellite. For students to determine how much solar energy the satellite is capable of collecting, they must be able to determine the surface area of the satellite. The satellite is an octagonal cylinder comprised of 8 rectangular panels which each have a width of 35 inches and a height of 54 inches. The octagon is 93 inches in diameter. Students can determine the surface area of the satellite by finding the surface area of the panels (SA1) with the equation: SA1=8 x length x width, then finding the surface area of the octagon (SA2) using the equation: SA2=(2+2 x square root of 2) x width squared. Students then add SA1 to SA2 to determine the total surface area of the satellite.
Magnetic Storm Graph

Using a graph of a magnetic storm, students can learn to read the data on the line graph and answer math questions about the data. The vertical axis of the graph records magnetic changes in an east to west direction on the Earth measured in nano-Tesslas (nT). There are 1 billion nano-Tesslas in 1 Tessla. The horizontal axis of the graph measures the elapsed time during an event using Universal Time (UT) or Greenwich Mean Time. UT follows a 24 hour clock, so 1:00PM would be recorded as 13:00. Students can find various readings on the graph and convert them into Tesslas using the equation: T=nT divided by 1 billion.
Speed of Solar and Auroral Events

Students can learn about determining the speed a solar and auroral event travels by using a word problem. If a solar event occurs on Nov. 7 at 16:06 UT and is viewed on Nov. 9 at 12:00 UT, students can determine that it the event took 43 hours and 54 minutes before it was viewed. This is the time (T) it took to be viewed. Students are given the distance (D) of 93 million miles the event traveled between the sun and the Earth. Using the equation Speed=D divided by T, students can determine the speed the event was traveling in miles per hour.
Determining Averages of Auroral Power Data

The power of an aurora can be measured based on the amount of light it produces. Using a table of recorded time and power data in both the North and South Hemisphere of an auroral event, students can answer math problems related to reading and understanding the table data. Students can determine the average power of the auroral event in the Northern Hemisphere by adding up all the power data and dividing by the number of entries. Students can determine the peak power times in both hemispheres by comparing the data and finding the correlating time at which both hemispheres had a recorded peak in power.