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Problem 4 Solution

One light-year is the distance that light travels in exactly one year.
If the speed of light is 6.7 x 108 mph, convert light-years to:
a. miles
b. meters 
(a) 5.9x1012 mi   (b) 9.4x1015 m

Solution Steps:

We need to change 6.7x108 miles in one hour to ?? miles in one year and then to ?? meters in one year. We'll need some conversion equations:

1 mi = 1.61x103m
1 day = 24 hr
1 yr = 365 days

Notice that the last two equations can be combined to give:

1 yr = 8760 hr

Here are the two calculations:

We'll state the answers to two sig figs, since the speed of light was given that way.

Another problem like this one.


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