Question

Light from the sun reaches the earth in 8.3 min. The speed of light is 3.0 x 10^8 m/s. How far is the earth from the sun?

Answer 1

We can solve this problem by converting units and then canceling units so that we get distance:

`((3.0x10^(8)m)/(s) )*((8.3min)/(1) )*((60s)/(1min) )=1,494x10^(8)m=1.49x10^(11)m`

So therefore we know that the earth is
`1.49x10^(11)` meters away from the sun.