How long does it take (in minutes) for light to reach Earth from the Sun, a distance of 1.589 × 108 km?
distance = rate x time
1.589E8 km x (1000 m/km) = 3E8 m/s x time
Solve for time in seconds and convert to minutes.
9099
To find out how long it takes for light to reach Earth from the Sun, we can start by calculating the speed of light. The speed of light, denoted by c, is approximately 299,792 kilometers per second (km/s).
Next, we need to calculate the time it takes for light to travel from the Sun to Earth, a distance of 1.589 × 10^8 km. We can use the formula: time = distance / speed.
Let's plug in the values:
Distance = 1.589 × 10^8 km
Speed = 299,792 km/s
time = (1.589 × 10^8 km) / (299,792 km/s)
Now, let's solve this equation:
time = 529.49 seconds
Since the question asks for the time in minutes, we can convert seconds to minutes by dividing the value by 60 (since there are 60 seconds in a minute).
time(minutes) = 529.49 seconds / 60 = 8.82 minutes (rounded to two decimal places)
Therefore, it takes approximately 8.82 minutes for light to reach Earth from the Sun.