Real-Life Math -- Solution
To calculate the time it takes for light to travel from the sun
to Earth, we need to divide the distance light has to travel by the miles
it can travel per second.
Seconds it takes to travel = 93,000,000
miles (the distance) / 186,000 miles per second (the speed)
Seconds it
takes to travel = 500
Once we calculate 500 seconds, we need to
convert that to minutes by dividing the number of seconds in a minute.
Minutes
it takes to travel = 500 seconds / 60 seconds per minute
Minutes it takes
to travel = 8.3
To calculate the time it would take to travel
by car from the sun to Earth, we would use the same calculation as above,
only substituting 60 miles per hour for the light speed.
Hours
it takes to travel = 93,000,000 miles / 60 miles per hour
Hours it takes
to travel = 1,550,000
So we know how many hours it would take a
car to get to the sun if it traveled at 60 miles per hour. How many years
would that be?
Years = 1,550,000 hours / 24 hours per day / 365
days per year
Years = 64,583 days / 365 days per year
Years = 177
That
means that by car, it would take you 177 years to reach the sun. Light only
takes 8 minutes.