Light travels at an approximate rate of 1.9×105

Question

mi./sec. There are about 3.2×107
seconds in a year. About how many miles does light travel in a year? Write the answer in scientific notation. Express the answer to the exact decimal place.(1

Answer 1

To find out how many miles light travels in a year, you can multiply the speed of light by the number of seconds in a year.

1. Speed of light: \(1.9 \times 10^5\) miles/second
2. Seconds in a year: \(3.2 \times 10^7\) seconds

Now, multiply these two values:

\[ \text{Distance} = \text{Speed} \times \text{Time} = (1.9 \times 10^5) \times (3.2 \times 10^7) \]

Using the properties of exponents, we can calculate this as follows:

\[ \text{Distance} = 1.9 \times 3.2 \times 10^{5 + 7} = 6.08 \times 10^{12} \]

Thus, light travels approximately \(6.08 \times 10^{12}\) miles in a year.