Final answer:
It takes light approximately 1.28 seconds to travel from the Moon to the Earth based on the distance and speed of light, with a slight difference to 1.3 seconds observed from Apollo mission radio communication delays due to Earth's atmosphere.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate how much time it takes for light to reach the Earth from the Moon, you use the formula \( time = \frac{distance}{speed} \). Given that the distance to the Moon is 3.84 × 10^8 meters (384,000 km) and the speed of light (c) is 3.00 × 10^8 meters per second, you can find the time it takes for light to travel from the Moon to Earth.
Time Taken = Distance / Speed of Light = 3.84 × 10^8 m / 3.00 × 10^8 m/s = 1.28 seconds. However, from observing the Apollo missions, we know there is typically a total round trip delay of about 3 seconds for radio communications, which implies the one-way trip is approximately 1.3 seconds when including atmospheric effects.
Note: The small difference between the calculated time and observed time is because the speed of light is slightly slowed down in Earth's atmosphere.