I have a hard time getting this someone help me?
Astronauts often use the unit light year to express intergalactic distances. If light travels 3.00 x .10^10 cm/s and one year is defined as 365 days, how many kilometers does light travel in one year?
I would change 3.00E10 cm/s to 3.00E5 km/s first, then
3.00E5 km/s x (60 s/min) x (60 min/hr) x (24 hr/day) x (365 days/yr) = ? km/year.
9.47*10^12 km or 9.47e12 km
To find the distance in kilometers that light travels in one year, we need to know the value of light speed in centimeters per year.
Given:
- Light speed is 3.00 x 10^10 cm/s.
- There are 365 days in a year.
To calculate the distance light travels in one year in centimeters, we can multiply the speed of light by the number of seconds in a year:
Distance in cm = Speed of light (cm/s) x Time (s/year)
However, we need to convert the time from seconds to years:
1 year = 365 days x 24 hours/day x 60 minutes/hour x 60 seconds/minute
Now, we can calculate the distance in centimeters:
Distance in cm = Speed of light (cm/s) x (365 days x 24 hours/day x 60 minutes/hour x 60 seconds/minute)
Finally, we need to convert the distance from centimeters to kilometers:
1 kilometer = 100,000 centimeters.
To convert the distance from centimeters to kilometers, we divide the distance in centimeters by 100,000:
Distance in km = Distance in cm / 100,000
By following these steps, we can calculate the distance in kilometers that light travels in one year.