Light in a vacuum travels at a speed of [tex]$3.00 \times 10^8$ m/s[/tex]. On average, Earth is 93,000,000 miles from the Sun. How many minutes does it take sunlight to reach Earth?
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Answer (3)
The correct unit for the speed of light is [ m s⁻¹ ].
Time = (distance) / (speed)
Time = (9.3 x 10^7 miles) x (1609 m/mile) / (3 x 10^8 m/s) = 498.8 seconds .
That would be 8.31 minutes .
The distance light travels in a vacuum in one year is known as a light-year. The speed of light in a vacuum is a fundamental constant known as c, and its value is approximately 3.00 ∗ 1 0 8 m e t ers p erseco n d (m/s). To determine how many minutes it takes sunlight to reach Earth from the Sun, we first convert the Earth-Sun distance from miles to meters (since the speed of light is given in meters per second), and then we calculate the time in seconds before converting it to minutes.
First, we convert 93,000,000 miles to meters, noting that 1 mile is approximately 1.60934 kilometers (or 1609.34 meters):
93 , 000 , 000 mi l es ∗ 1609.34 m e t ers / mi l e = 1.496 ∗ 1 0 11 m e t ers
Now, we use the speed of light, c = 3.00 × 10^8 m/s, to calculate the time, t, in seconds:
{ { t = { { distance } / { { speed of light } }}} = {{ { 1.496 * 10^{11} meters } / { { 3.00 * 10^8 m/s } }} = 498.67 seconds
To find the time in minutes, we divide the number of seconds by 60:
498.67 seconds / 60 seconds/minute = 8.31 minutes
Therefore, it takes approximately 8.31 minutes for sunlight to reach Earth from the Sun.
Sunlight takes approximately 8.32 minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth. Using the formula for time, we calculated the distance in meters and divided it by the speed of light. This calculation shows that light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes to reach us.
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