Question

Astronomers use a light year to measure distance. a light year is the distance light travels in one year. The speed is approximately 300,00km/sec. how long will it take a rocket traveling 63,000km/hr to reach Alpha Centauri (the ⭐ closest to Earth other than the ). Note: Alpha Centauri is approximately 4.34 light years from Earth. which is 4.11 x 10^13 km away (when using scientific notation). one light year is 9.46 x 10^12 km.

Answer 1

Speed of light = 300,000 km/sec

Rocket's speed = 63,000 km/hr or 6.3 x 10⁴ km/hr

Alpha Centauri distance from Earth = 4.11 x 10¹³ km

One light year (distance) = 9.46 x 10¹² km

To solve for the time it takes it travel, we can manipulate the speed formula.

`\begin{gathered} \text{speed}=\frac{dis\tan ce}{\text{time}} \\ \text{time}=\frac{dis\tan ce\text{ }}{\text{speed}} \end{gathered}`

We already have the distance of Alpha Centauri from Earth written above. We also have the speed of the rocket written above too. We will substitute those values to the formula.