Consider a pulse of laser light aimed at the Moon that bounces back to Earth. The distance between Earth and the Moon is 3.84 * 108 m. Show that the round-trip time for the light is 2.56 s.
Round trip distance is double the earth-moon distance.
Speed of light is 3*10^8 m/s.
Distance = Speed * time, so
Time = Distance /Speed
Plug in numbers and calculate time accordingly.
To find the round-trip time for the light, we can divide the total distance traveled by the speed of light.
Given:
Distance between Earth and the Moon = 3.84 * 10^8 m
Speed of light in a vacuum = 3 * 10^8 m/s
To find the round-trip time:
Round-trip time = (2 * Distance) / Speed
Let's substitute the values into the formula:
Round-trip time = (2 * 3.84 * 10^8 m) / (3 * 10^8 m/s)
Now, simplify the expression:
Round-trip time = (7.68 * 10^8 m) / (3 * 10^8 m/s)
Round-trip time = 2.56 seconds
Therefore, the round-trip time for the light is 2.56 s.
To find the round-trip time for the light, we need to calculate the time it takes for the light pulse to reach the Moon and then return back to Earth. We can use the speed of light to calculate this.
The speed of light in a vacuum is approximately 3.00 x 10^8 meters per second (m/s).
First, let's calculate the time it takes for the light to reach the Moon:
Distance from Earth to Moon = 3.84 * 10^8 m
Speed of light = 3.00 * 10^8 m/s
Time to reach the Moon = Distance / Speed
= (3.84 * 10^8 m) / (3.00 * 10^8 m/s)
= 1.28 seconds
Now, we need to calculate the time for the light to travel back from the Moon to Earth, which is the same distance:
Time to return to Earth = 1.28 seconds
To find the round-trip time, we can simply add the time to reach the Moon and the time to return to Earth:
Round-trip time = Time to reach the Moon + Time to return to Earth
= 1.28 seconds + 1.28 seconds
= 2.56 seconds
Therefore, the round-trip time for the light is 2.56 seconds.