When a solar flare erupts on the surface of the sun, how many minutes after it occurs does its light show up in an astronomer's telescope on earth?
I am totally confused..help!
How far is the sun from earth? The speed of light is approximately 186,282 miles/second.
Distance from sun to earth is about 93,000,000 miles.
So distance = speed of light x time
93,000,000 = 186,282 x seconds.
Solve for seconds.
seconds = 93,000,000/186,282 = about 499 seconds or about 8 minutes.
distance = rate * time
so
time = distance/ rate
for rate use the speed of light in meters/second
for distance use the distance from sun to earth in meters
then
divide by 60 to get minutes instead of seconds
ok thank you! I wasn't using the right numbers!
To determine the time it takes for the light from a solar flare to reach an astronomer's telescope on Earth, we need to consider the distance between the Sun and Earth, as well as the speed of light.
1. Distance: On average, the distance between the Sun and Earth is about 93 million miles (or 150 million kilometers). However, this distance can vary slightly due to the elliptical shape of Earth's orbit.
2. Speed of Light: Light travels at a speed of approximately 186,282 miles per second (or 299,792 kilometers per second) in a vacuum.
Now, let's calculate the time it takes for the light to reach Earth:
1. Convert the distance between the Sun and Earth to miles:
93 million miles
2. Divide the distance by the speed of light to find the time it takes:
Time = Distance / Speed of Light
Time = 93,000,000 miles / 186,282 miles per second
Using a calculator, we find that it takes roughly 499.004 seconds for the light from the solar flare to reach Earth.
To convert this to minutes, divide it by 60:
499.004 seconds / 60 seconds per minute
The final answer is approximately 8.32 minutes.
Therefore, it takes approximately 8.32 minutes for the light from a solar flare to show up in an astronomer's telescope on Earth.