how many light minutes does it take for the sun's light to reach the earth?

Answer 1

The distance from the Earth to the Sun varies because the Earth's orbit about the Sun is elliptical.At it's closest, the distance is 91,402,000 miles and it's farthest distance it is 94,512,000 miles.This gives an average distance of 92,957,000 miles. Light travels at 186,282 miles per second. Dividing the average distance by the speed of light gives 499.01225 seconds which is 8.3168708 minutes.

Answer 2

It takes a bit more than 8 minutes for light from the Sun to reach the Earth.

Answer 3

In true sense of the word - it takes 8 1/3 minutes for the suns light to reach us, making it 8 1/3 light minutes away.

Answer 4

Nobody has allowed for the effect of aphelion (farthest distance from sun) and perihelion (nearest distance to sun).

Perihelion: nearest to the sun: January 3rd this year. Perihelion: 147,098,074 km (0.983 AU)

Aphelion: furthest from the Sun: July 7th this year. Aphelion: 152,097,701 km (1.016 AU)

2005
Perihelion January 2
Aphelion July 5

2006
Perihelion January 4
Aphelion July 3

2007
Perihelion January 3
Aphelion July 7

2008
Perihelion January 3
Aphelion July 4

2009
Perihelion Jan 4
Aphelion July 4

2010
Perihelion Jan 3
Aphelion July 6

2011
Perihelion Jan 3
Aphelion July 4

2012
Perihelion Jan 5
Aphelion July 5

2013
Perihelion Jan 2
Aphelion July 5

2014
Perihelion Jan 4
Aphelion July 4

2015
Perihelion Jan 4
Aphelion July 6

2016
Perihelion Jan 2
Aphelion July 4

2017
Perihelion Jan 4
Aphelion July 3

2018
Perihelion Jan 3
Aphelion July 6

2019
Perihelion Jan 3
Aphelion July 4

2020
Perihelion Jan 5
Aphelion July 4

About a fortnight after the solstices in other words, The difference in distance is of the order of 5 million kilometres, and about 18 seconds as regards light reaching earth from the Sun.

Or it takes 3 seconds a month longer from January (3 mins 10 seconds) to July (3 mins 28 seconds) with the average 3 mins 19 seconds being achieved about a fortnight after the spring and autumnal equinoxes i.e. in early April and in early October.

Answer 5

It is known that the average distance between the Earth and the Sun is about 93,000,000 miles. And it is also known that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second.

So the time it takes light to travel the distance between the Earth and the Sun is

= 93,000,000 miles/186,000 sec = 500 miles/seconds

Therefore, (500 miles/second) * (1/60) = 8.333 miles/minute

* Please note, the "light minute" is not a measurement of time but the measurement of distance that light travels in a minute.

Answer 6

A light minute is not an amount of time. It is the distance that light moves in a minute. So really, there is no answer.

Answer 7

A light-minute is a distance, not a length of time. A light-minute is the distance light can travel in one minute.

Answer 8

working it out... (i'm assuming that your m/s is meters consistent with 2nd?) at first, you will possibly be able to desire to transform the miles into metric... multiply via a million.609 to get miles into kilometers, or via a million,609 to transform int meters. (it rather is your distance) you have already got the fee (3.00x10^8 m/s) Then it rather is basic, in case you already know the area, and you already know the fee, and speed= dstance/time, then you only might desire to organize the equation subsequently to remedy for time. time = distance/speed If the respond you get isn't close to to eight minutes (480 seconds), you probably did some thing incorrect.

Answer 9

If theres no difference between light minutes and human minutes, about 8. =)

Answer 10

Looks like I'm wrong, I always thought it was three light minutes away. It is about eight.