Asked by J

When a solar flare erupts on the surface of the sun, how many minutes after it occurs does its light show up in an astronomer's telescope on earth?

I am totally confused..help!
Answered by DrBob222
How far is the sun from earth? The speed of light is approximately 186,282 miles/second.
Distance from sun to earth is about 93,000,000 miles.
So distance = speed of light x time
93,000,000 = 186,282 x seconds.
Solve for seconds.
seconds = 93,000,000/186,282 = about 499 seconds or about 8 minutes.
Answered by Damon
distance = rate * time
so
time = distance/ rate

for rate use the speed of light in meters/second
for distance use the distance from sun to earth in meters
then
divide by 60 to get minutes instead of seconds
Answered by J
ok thank you! I wasn't using the right numbers!
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