I "m watching Star Trek Voyager and I'm
curious if your 70,00000 light years from home how many callender years is this?
2007-05-17 10:39:19 · 11 answers · asked by christa1075 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
A calendar year is a unit of time.
A light year is a unit of distance (the distance light travels in a year).
You cannot convert one to the other.
2007-05-17 10:43:34 · answer #1 · answered by apjok 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
a light year and a callender year are measurements of two different things.
A light year is a measurement of distance not time.
A callender year is a measure of time. You cannot equate the two in the way you want.
1 light year = 9.4605284 Ã 1015 meters which is the measurement light travels in a year in a vacuum
a callender year is 365 days.
So you see, you can't compare meters to days in any meaninful way.
The people in voyager are just really, really far away. That's the point they're trying to get across.
2007-05-17 10:46:33 · answer #2 · answered by disdamn 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The folks that stated that a "light year" is a unit of measure and not time are correct. However, it is a unit of measurement when determining great distances in space. A "light year" is exactly what is says, the distance light travels in one year. Which is about 5,879,000,000,000 miles. Now Voyager is supposed to be about 70,000 light years from the Alpha Quadrant. If they traveled at warp 1 for 70,000 years (of course that would be impossible) they would reach home. But Voyager is capable of speeds close to warp 10. Warp ten being unlikely to impossible to reach with a standard warp drive engine. Even if Voyager could sustain warp 9.9 continuously it would still take about 75 Earth years for them to reach the Alpha Quadrant. That's why in the earlier seasons they say that they are about 75 years away from home. Even that is a long time to wait. Hope I answered your question.
2007-05-17 16:26:04 · answer #3 · answered by John C 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
A light year isn't a measure o ftime (a "calender year"). Despite the name its a measure o fdistance. It is defined as the distance light will travel in one earth year and is equal to about 9.4 trillion kilometers or 6 trillion miles.
So the Voyager was supposed to be about 420 quadrillion miles (65 quadrillion kilometers) from Earth.
2007-05-17 11:06:16 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Since a light year is the distance light propagates it would take you 70,00000 years to go there IF you could travel at that speed.
Now since you can't do that it will take even more time to get there.
2007-05-17 10:48:11 · answer #5 · answered by ulfsnilsson 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the time frame relevant to the fictional characters on the show, it takes them 7 years, or 84 calendar months to get home. Along the way they take various shortcuts.
If you're travelling at 1/2 the speed of light, a light year will take two years to cross.
2007-05-17 11:04:24 · answer #6 · answered by Stuey 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Light years is a measure of distance not time, a Light year is the distance light can travel in one year. Approximately
3 *10^8 meters/sec * 365 days/year * 24hours/day * 3600sec/hr
The final units are meters.
Note actual speed of light is 299,792,458 meters/sec
2007-05-17 10:46:11 · answer #7 · answered by tex_ta_79 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Despite the word "year" in the name, light years measure distance, not time. One light year is about 6 trillion miles.
2007-05-17 11:37:10 · answer #8 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you travel 1 light year per calendar year it would take you 7,000,000 years to travel the distance.
2007-05-17 10:48:19 · answer #9 · answered by johnfarruca 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the light year is a measure of distance, not time.
2007-05-17 10:57:27 · answer #10 · answered by silver d 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋