Question

11. One light year is the distance light travels in one year, which is 9.461*1015m.The nearest star to Earth is Alpha Centauri, which is 4.35 light years away. Calculatethe distance in:a. mb. kmc. milesd. How long would it take to get there flying on a jumbo jet at 400mph?

Answer 1

Part A. We are given the distance that light travels in one year. To determine the distance equivalent to 4.35 light-years we need to use the following relationship:

`4.35\text{ light years}*\frac{9.461*10^(15)m}{1light\text{ year}}`

Solving the operations we get:

`4.35\text{ light years=4.12}*10^(16)m`

Part B. To convert this distance into kilometers we will use the following conversion factor:

`1km=1000m`

Using the conversion factor we get:

Part C. To convert the distance into miles we will use the following conversion factor

using the conversion factor:

Part D. Given the velocity we can determine time using the following equation:

Where "t" is time, "d" is distance and "v" is velocity. Replacing the values we get:

`t=\frac{2.57*10^(16)miles}{400\text{ miles/h}}`

Solving the operation we get:

`t=6.43*10^(13)hours`