2007-06-13 04:09:03 · 26 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The distance light travels in one year.
2007-06-13 04:11:31 · answer #1 · answered by yeeeehaw 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
A light year is the distance travelled by light in 1 year.
365 x 24 x 3600 x 3 x 10^5 kilometers will be 1 light year, assuming that 1 year has 365 days, 24 hours per day, 3600 seconds an hour and light travels with a speed of 300,000 kms per second in vacuum.
2007-06-13 11:14:15 · answer #2 · answered by Swamy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Light years are the number of kilometres light travels in a year. This unit is mainly used for measuring distances in space. The amount of kilometres light travels in a second (in standard index form) is 3x10^5. If you times this by 360 (an hour), then by 24(a day), then by 365 (an ordinary year). The total is 9.4608x10^11.
2007-06-16 14:11:53 · answer #3 · answered by The professor 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A light year is, as stated above, the distance travelled by light in a year.
It is a measurement used in popular science for describing interstellar distances since it lends itself well to the vast gulfs seperating even the nearest objects in space.
The nearest star to us is 4 light years away. Sounds close, until you convert that to miles: 2.3 x 10^13 miles or 23 trillion miles. Clearly measuring things in miles (or km) is not useful in space.
In fact, professional astronomers don't use light years but another measurement called parsec. The nearest star is 1.2parsec. Parsec is really a measurement of the apparent movement due to parallax - which varies with distance.
Distance to other galaxies and beyond tends to be given in megaparsec - Mpc, a thousand parsec.
The nearest galaxy (not dwarf) is Andromeda 0.77 Mpc away. Thats 2.5 million light years or 1.5 x 10^19 miles!
2007-06-13 11:34:02 · answer #4 · answered by DoctorBob 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A light year is a measure of distance.
The distance light will travel in one year.
i.e.;
1 light year =
3*10^8 m/s * 60 s/min *60 min/hr *24 hr/day * 365 day/year
= 3*10^8 * 60^2 * 24 * 365 meters
.
2007-06-13 11:14:37 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A light year is the distance light travels in a vacuum in one year. It is a huge number.
2007-06-16 12:03:35 · answer #6 · answered by johnandeileen2000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A light year is the distance that light would travel over 1 year inside a vacuum so... 1 light year would be 300000000 *60*60*24*365.25 which equals 9467280000000000 meters so light years would be more then one of these.
the exact speed of light is299,792.458 kilometers per second and the exact length of a earth year is 365.2425 but i didn t feel like getting that anal so i estimated
2007-06-13 11:16:27 · answer #7 · answered by BRENNON P 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is simply a measurement. It is the distance light can travel in one year. Light travels at roughly 186282 miles per second. So as you can imagine, it is a large distance. hope this helps.
2007-06-13 11:13:45 · answer #8 · answered by Wayne 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A light year is actually not a measurement of time, but raher a measurement of the distance light would travel in one year.
2007-06-13 14:40:39 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
the distance light travels in one year
2007-06-13 12:31:01 · answer #10 · answered by Bel H 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋