Consider a pulse of laser light aimed at the moon that bounces back to earth. The distance between Earth and Moon is 3.8 x 10 (small eight above) m. Show that the round-trip time for the light is 2.5 s.
time= distance/speedlight= 2*3.8E8/3E8=?
Thank you for your help!!!
To calculate the round-trip time for the light pulse, we can use the formula:
Time (t) = Distance (d) / Speed (s)
Where:
- Time is the round-trip time for the light pulse
- Distance is the distance between Earth and Moon
- Speed is the speed of light
The speed of light is constant and approximately equal to 3.0 x 10^8 m/s.
Substituting the given values into the formula, we have:
Time (t) = (3.8 x 10^8 m) / (3.0 x 10^8 m/s)
Now, let's simplify the expression:
Time (t) = (3.8 / 3.0) x (10^8 / 10^8) s
Time (t) = 1.27 s
However, this only represents the one-way time for the light pulse from Earth to the Moon. Since we want the round-trip time, we need to double this value:
Round-trip Time = 2 x 1.27 s = 2.54 s
Therefore, the round-trip time for the light pulse is approximately 2.5 seconds.