2006-10-19 09:49:20 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Many years ago, I was sitting on a train in the queue to get into Charing Cross Station. I looked down the river and I could see the time on Big Ben was 10:00. I looked at my watch and it said 10:07. So it takes 7 minutes for light to get from Big Ben to the middle of Hungerford Bridge. From that I calculated that the speed of light must be about 11 mph. How anyone makes it 186,287 miles per second, I can't imagine.
2006-10-19 09:58:31 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Looks like you have the answers you need, a lightyear is the distance light travels in a year and a parsec is 3.26156378 lightyears... Parsec stands for parallax of one arc second.
It is based on the method of trigonometric parallax, one of the most ancient and standard methods of determining stellar distances. The parallax of a star is half of the angular distance a star appears to move against the celestial sphere due to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. Equivalently, it is the angle subtended at a star by the radius of the Earth's orbit. One parsec is defined to be the distance from the Earth to a star that has a parallax of 1 arcsecond.
This isn't the answer you asked for but it is an interesting tidbit for you........
2006-10-19 20:44:12 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
In A Level Physics the Speed of Light is Used as 300000000 m/s (metres per second)
2006-10-19 17:07:33 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
is your Mps Miles or Meters?
186,000 Miles per Second
3 times 10 to the eighth power Meters per second.
not just a good idea, it's law!
2006-10-19 16:54:44 · answer #4 · answered by Clout 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
300000000 meters per second
(3 times 10 to the 8th, or 300 million)
2006-10-19 16:51:53 · answer #5 · answered by kris 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe he's doing a method of Gauss preliminary orbit calculation, and he needs to correct his converged distances for planetary abberation. Wild guess, of course.
c = 186282.4 miles per second
1/c = 0.00577551824 days per AU
2006-10-19 19:41:08 · answer #6 · answered by David S 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Very fast, measured in a vacume it is, 186,000 miles per second. Matter would burn up in a gravity environment
2006-10-19 21:02:28 · answer #7 · answered by Dave N 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In vacuum it is about 186000 miles per second . mutiply if by 3600to arrive at the speed per hour .It is about 6,696,000. miles per hour.
2006-10-20 02:10:02 · answer #8 · answered by diamond r 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi. You got plenty of good answers and I really liked "Old-know-all"s answer. But the intriguing followup question is..."Why?"
2006-10-19 17:21:24 · answer #9 · answered by Cirric 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
all of the answers above are correct, it is 186 000 miles/sec
2006-10-19 23:01:43 · answer #10 · answered by mcdonaldcj 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋