I was talking to someone who read a book and remembered the distance ..or measurement of stars etc .
I want to learn it so when people ask me i have an idea of it all .
it was neat .. light travels at ..such and such speed ..or .. if it is this far away it takes the light this amount of time to reach us.
any websotes or lessons someone knows or from your own experiences?
2007-02-01 07:47:30 · 6 answers · asked by Chef Dane 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The speed of light is approximately 186,282.397 miles per second in a vacuum. A light year is the distance that light travels in one year or approximately 5,878,625,373,183.61 miles, assuming 365.25 days per year.
Astronomers tend to use the parsec as the measurement of distance. A parsec is approximately 3.26 light years.
2007-02-01 08:15:26 · answer #1 · answered by Cymro 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Light travels at a rate of 186,000 per second. In one calendar year a beam of light will travel 6 trillion miles. Multiply that by the number of light years quoted in a source and you have a prodigious distance.
2007-02-01 07:52:37 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
light travels at 186,000 miles per second. A light year is the distance light travels in a year. After this, it's just doing the math
2007-02-01 07:51:41 · answer #3 · answered by airjamin8tor 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi. Light, traveling at the fastest speed we think is possible, takes one year to travel one light-year. This about 6 trillion miles.
2007-02-01 07:51:40 · answer #4 · answered by Cirric 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When I need it, I look up the number (see the link below). Or sometimes I use this:
light year = ( 365.25 days/year) x (24 hours /day) x (60 minutes /hour) x (60 seconds / minute) x (300,000 km /second)
2007-02-01 07:51:40 · answer #5 · answered by morningfoxnorth 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This should help
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_year
2007-02-01 07:50:35 · answer #6 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋