2007-02-25 10:50:26 · 8 answers · asked by morris c 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Light moves at ~3 x 10^8 meters / second
A light year is the distance light travells in in a year, so...
(365.25 days / year) * (24 hours / day) * (60mins / hour) * (60 secs / min) = 31,557,600 seconds / year = A
(3 x 10^8 meters / second) * A ~= 9.467 x 10^12 km
Hmm... yeah, that's a big ol' distance.
Cheers!
2007-02-25 10:58:15 · answer #1 · answered by Argon 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A light-year is a unit of measurement of length, specifically the distance light travels in vacuum in one Julian year.
A light-year is equal to:
- 9,460,730,472,580.8 km (about 9.461 Pm)
- about 5,879,000,000,000 statute miles
- about 63,240 astronomical units, where 1 AU is the average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Sun.
- about 0.3066 parsecs, where a parsec is defined as the distance at which a star would shift in parallax by an arcsecond as the Earth orbited the Sun.
2007-02-25 10:55:41 · answer #2 · answered by Nimish A 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A light year equals the amount of distance you could travel at the speed of light in one year. In a vacuum light travels at 299,792.458 km/s. So in one year that would be 9454254955488 km.
2007-02-25 10:57:05 · answer #3 · answered by kooman424 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's the distance light travels in one year. About 9.46*10^12 km.
Doug
2007-02-25 10:56:14 · answer #4 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The distance light travels in one year, travelling at 186,000 Miles per Second or 300,000,000 meters per second.
About 5.9 trillion miles in one year
(5,865,696,000,000 Miles by mscalc)
2007-02-25 10:56:40 · answer #5 · answered by occluderx 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
365 days x 24 hrs x 60 min x 60 sec x 186,000 = miles in 1 light year.
...= 5,865,696,000,000 miles
...= 9,385,113,600,000 km
2007-02-25 10:59:12 · answer #6 · answered by Norrie 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
light travels 186,000 miles per SECOND--multiply that times 60 to get MPM, times 60 to get MPH, times 24 to get MPD, and times 365.25 to get a light year. (hint: it's a big number).
2007-02-25 11:00:06 · answer #7 · answered by mistrhistre 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
9,460,730,472,580.8 km
2007-02-25 10:55:20 · answer #8 · answered by Charmed 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋