word problem about light..help!?

Question

Light moves 1.86 * 100,000 miles in one second (1.86 times 100,000).

A light-year is the distance light moves in one year.

Show that a light year is about 5.88 trillion miles.

Answer 1

First calculate how many seconds there are in a year.

60 * 60 *24 * 365 = 31535000 seconds in a year.

Then multiply that by how far light travels in one second (it's easier to use a scientific calculator and scientific notation.

1.86 x 10 ^ 5 * 31535000 = about 5.86 X 10^12 miles
That would be 5 with 12 number places trailing it so....
5,860,000,000,000 is pretty darn close to 5.88 trillion miles. Now I know my calculation is slightly off. Your teacher was probably looking for a leap year in the equation. When multiplying by the # of days in a year, use 365.25 instead of 365.

Answer 2

Light travels 1 Nautical mile every 6.18 microseconds
(nautical mile = 2000 yards = 6000 feet)
Used in radar and aircraft distance measurements.
A Statuate mile is 5280 feet, used by cars and pedometers.

Sense you probably won't be walking or Driving your car you probably mean to use the nautical mile.

This is a constant according to Albert Einstein.

10 miles in 61.8 uSec
100 miles in 618 uSec

I rounded the numbers up to the nearest full mile.

That comes out to about
161,812 Miles every second. x 60=
9,708,738 Miles a Minute x 60 =
582,524,272 Miles an Hour x 24 =
13,980,582,524 Miles in a Day x 365.25 =
5,106,407,766,990 Miles in a year
It's only 5.1 trillion miles,
790 billion miles short
the mile you used in your equation was 5.366 usec (possibly a statuate mile or 1.1363636364 x (nautical mile)
in Statuate miles the distance would still be only 5.79 trillion miles
still more than a ninety billion miles off from your statement.

Then we run into the theoretical time warp syndrome, if you travel at the speed of light the rest of the univerce slows down. this is a theory passed down, also by Mr. Albert Einstein
(E=MC) squared

good luck on your trip.

Answer 3

Hi. The number of seconds in a year is about 60 * 60 * 24 * 365.25. Multiply this answer by 186,000 to get the result. (It's only approximate.)