2007-03-12 07:29:17 · 16 answers · asked by steven2008 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
A light year has the same relative length of a normal year. We call it light year because it refers to the speed you would be traveling at during that length of time. Lets say you were to travel to a planet one light year away from earth. Then you would have to hop into your spaceship and travel at the speed of light, and it would take you one calendar year to get there. capische?
2007-03-12 07:36:47 · answer #1 · answered by Javier B 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
A light year is a distance measure, not one of time. It is, as the others have already said, the distance travelled by light in one year. I don't know how accurately you wnat the question answered, but - complete with working - here goes:
The Earth rotates, relative to the Sun, once every 24 hours (86,400 seconds). Relative to the stars, the period is 235.909 seconds shorter (23h 56m 4.091s). By dividing the length of either version of a "day" by the difference between the two and then multiplying by the other day's length, we find the length of one year in seconds. This is 31,556,987.9165.
The speed of light in a vacuum is well known; the published figure being 299,793,048.4 metres per second. Multiply these two quantities together and we have the distance of 9,460,565,605,809,500 metres. This is thus approximately 9,460,565,606,000 kilometres or, applying the ratio of 3937/6336, about 5,878,511,172,700 miles.
These distance measurements are the representations of a light year; I trust they are accurate enough for you.
2007-03-12 08:22:32 · answer #2 · answered by general_ego 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
A light year is the distance light travels in a year, it's a complicated sum and I'm dyscalculate but logically, it should be 186,000 x 60 = 11,160,000 = a light minute
11,160,000 (my brain's starting to shut down now) x 60 = 669,600,000 = a light hour.
669,600,000 (it's all the calculator now) x 24 = 1.60704000 E
And there goes the calculator. We need a rocket scientist who doesn't have a number brain block.
2007-03-12 22:36:43 · answer #3 · answered by elflaeda 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a light year is the amount of light traveling over the the span of one year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, so light traveling over the course of 365 days, travels about 5.5 trillions miles in a year. That is the length of a light year. So to get to the Alpha Centuri star system, which is 4.3 light years away, it would take light 4 years and appx four months to reach the Alpha Centuri stars. Actually the closest star is our sun, which is 93,000,000 miles away. It takes 8 minutes for the the sunlight to reach us.
2007-03-12 09:00:48 · answer #4 · answered by Adam B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A light year is a distance. It is the distance that a beam / particle of light travels through a vacuum in 1 year.
2007-03-12 07:34:05 · answer #5 · answered by Corran 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not long, it's far. It is the distance light travels in a year.
2007-03-12 07:33:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
A "light year" is a measurement of distance, not time.
2007-03-12 14:38:37 · answer #7 · answered by V. 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the distance traveled at the speed of light for one year.
2007-03-12 07:54:07 · answer #8 · answered by neutron 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A year! Actually, it's a measure of distance, not time, as such, it's the distance that light travels in a year- a 'Julian year', in fact, which is 365.25 days. As a distance it is 9,460,730,472,580.8 km...
Check this wiki for a fuller picture- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_year
Now isn't that being good to you?
2007-03-12 07:32:57 · answer #9 · answered by Buzzard 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
9 460 472 580.8 Km equal to light year.
2007-03-12 08:45:27 · answer #10 · answered by CLIVE C 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋