Question

A Light-Year is a unit used to measure large distances in space. One light-year is approximately equal to 5.88 trillion miles. On a map of the Milky Way Galaxy, the scale is 3 inches: 50 light year. If two stars on the map are 18 inches apart, about how far apart are they in the galaxy? PLEASE HELP THANK YOU

Answer 1

Remark

Don't be fooled by the size of the numbers. You do this the same way you would if you were doing a question on the distance between New York and Boston on a map where they are 2.5 inches apart. What you can do is set up a proportion and leave off the word trillion until the very end.

Givens

d1 = 50 (trillion) light years. scale size = 3 inches.

d2 = x scale size 1 = 18 inches.

`(50)/(3) = (x)/(18) \text{......Cross Multiply}`

50*18 = 3x

900 = 3x Divide by 3

900/3 = x

300 = x

Answer

The distance between the two stars is 300 light years which is unimaginable.