Question

There was a major collision of an asteroid with the Moon in medieval times. It was described by monks at Canterbury Cathedral in England as a red glow on and around the Moon. How long after the asteroid hit the Moon, which is 3.84e+05 km away, would the light first arrive on Earth?

Components of some computers communicate with each other through optical fibers having an index of refraction of 1.52. What time in seconds is required for a signal to travel 0.18 m through such a fiber?

Answer 1

Light from an asteroid collision on the Moon would take approximately 1.28 seconds to reach Earth, calculated using the distance of 3.84 × 10⁵ km and the speed of light.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks about the time it would take for light to travel from the Moon to Earth after a hypothetical asteroid collision with the Moon.

Given the distance to the Moon as 3.84 × 10⁵ km (or 3.84 × 10⁸ meters), we can calculate the time taken for light to cover this distance by using the speed of light in a vacuum, which is approximately 3 × 10⁸ meters per second.

The calculation is a simple division of the distance by the speed of light:

(3.84 × 10⁸ m) / (3 × 10⁸ m/s), resulting in a travel time of roughly 1.28 seconds.