I was trying to answer a question with the formula of time= d/v
Q:"an asteroid is 7.98x10^8km from the sun;if the speed of light is 2.99x10^8m/s, how many minutes will it take light from the sun to reach the asteroid."
What I did in my calculator:
(7.98x10^8)/(2.99x10^8)
Resulted in (798/299) in faction or 2.668896321 in decimal.
Do I need to convert in to a x10^? Sign or my answer is good, just put 2.6min
no power of 10 is required.
You are ignoring the units.
7.98x10^8km = 7.98x10^11 m
2.99x10^8m/s = 4.98333.. x10^6 m/min , I divided by 60
now we can divide them:
7.98x10^11 ÷ 4.98333..x10^6
= 1.601 x 10^5 minutes
Ouch - my BAAADDDD!
Your method of using the formula time = distance / velocity is correct. However, there is a minor mistake in your calculation.
You correctly calculated the value of (7.98x10^8) / (2.99x10^8) as 2.668896321. This value represents the time in seconds, as both the distance and velocity are in different units (km and m/s respectively).
To convert this result into minutes, you need to divide it by 60, as there are 60 seconds in a minute. Dividing 2.668896321 by 60 gives you approximately 0.04448160535 minutes.
Now, when it comes to expressing your answer, you can either keep it in decimal form (0.04448160535 minutes) or convert it to a more readable format by multiplying it by 60 to get the number of seconds (approximately 2.668896321 seconds) and then rounding it to the nearest whole number (3 seconds). Therefore, the time it takes light from the sun to reach the asteroid is approximately 0.044 minutes or 3 seconds.
Remember to always pay attention to the units when doing calculations and make any necessary conversions accordingly.