6. What is "a light minute?" How many light
minutes is the earth from the sun? Express
this distance in kilometers?
Answers
Explanation:
inch a light minute =
1.412088 × 10^-12
Light minutes are useful for calculating the distances within a solar system. A light minute is equal to 17.9 million kilometres, or 11.1 million miles. The Earth is 8.316 minutes away from the Sun. The distance between the Earth and the Sun is 149,597,870.691 km.
Answer:
A light minute can be defined as the distance travelled by light in one minute in vaccum. Light year is its extended form which is the distance travelled by light in 1 year in vaccum.
The distance travelled by light from sun to earth in minutes is the light minute travelled by light to reach earth.
Earth is 8min 20 sec light minutes away from the sun. It means that the distance travelled by light in 8minute and 20 seconds will be the distance between earth and sun.
So, the distance travelled by light in these minutes will be;
= { 8(60) + 20 } secs * speed of light;
(here, it became light second since we are calculating it in seconds.)
= (500 seconds) * 3.0 * 10^8 m/s(approx.)
= 1500 * 10^8;
= 1.5 * 10^11 meters(approx.)
For kilometers, divide the result by 1000.
Hence, light minutes between earth and sun in kilometer = 1.5 * 10^11 / 1000
= 1.5 * 10^8 km.
That's all.