Every moment of every day, light pours out from the Sun at the center of our solar system and travels to Earth. It does not arrive at Earth instantaneously though; it takes time to get here. Your task is to figure out how long it takes for light to travel from the Sun to Earth.

Question

The formula for the velocity of an object is , where v is the velocity of the object, d is the distance traveled, and t is the time elapsed while that distance is traveled. If you had only this formula to work with, what should your first step be in determining how long it takes for light to reach Earth from the Sun? What additional information do you need to calculate this?

Solve for the variable you are looking for. Show your work.

Answer 1

distance = speed times time
so
time in seconds = distance in meters / speed in meters/second

we need to know:

1. the speed of light (about 3*10^8 meters/s)

2. the distance from earth to sun (about
1.5*10^11 meters