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Because sputnik travels at 18,000 mph, it can make an orbit of Earth once every _______ min.

We can make some simple calculations to solve this problem and get an approximate answer. The average diameter of Earth is 12,756 km or 7927 miles. The satellite used to fly about 500 miles above the surface of Earth. Thus, the distance traveled in completing one orbit can be approximated as the circumference of the circle whose radius is the distance of Sputnik from center of Earth. This distance is equal to the sum of Earth's radius and the distance of the satellite over the Earth's surface. We can also use the diameter of this orbit for the calculations. 


Thus, distance traveled = `pi` D = `pi` (7927 + 2 x 500) miles = 28,045 miles


Since the speed of the satellite is about 18,000 miles per hour, time taken to complete one orbit is:


time = distance / speed = 28045 miles / 18000 mph = 1.558 h = 93.5 min.


Thus, using the above approximations, it would take about 93.5 min for Sputnik to complete 1 orbit of Earth.


In reality, the actual time taken was about 96.2 minutes. The discrepancy between our result and the actual data is because we have made simplifying assumptions. For example, the orbit was not circular and the satellite did not maintain a constant distance from Earth. The satellite had an apogee of about 583.5 miles and a perigee of 133.6 miles.


Hope this helps. 

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