Question 181306: According to the Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, nothing in the universe as we presently know it can exceed the speed of light; in a sense, it is the ultimate cosmic speed limit. Speed of light in vacuum is 300,000 kilometers/second or 671,080,888 miles/hour! Take a moment and think about this tremendously high speed; it is extremely fast; faster than a speeding bullet (speed of a rifle bullet is in the range 400 to 3,350 miles/hour).
a. Show the speed of light in scientific notation in units of miles/hr.
b. Given that Moon on average is 240,000 miles away from where you are standing on Earth, how long does it take a light ray to travel from the Earth to the Moon? First, show your answer in hours in scientific notation. Then convert your answer to seconds. Your final answers should be accurate to 3 decimal places.
Answer by Alan3354(69443)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! According to the Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, nothing in the universe as we presently know it can exceed the speed of light; in a sense, it is the ultimate cosmic speed limit. Speed of light in vacuum is 300,000 kilometers/second or 671,080,888 miles/hour! Take a moment and think about this tremendously high speed; it is extremely fast; faster than a speeding bullet (speed of a rifle bullet is in the range 400 to 3,350 miles/hour).
a. Show the speed of light in scientific notation in units of miles/hr.
Using your figures, it's 6.711*10^8 mph, sometimes written 6.711E8
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b. Given that Moon on average is 240,000 miles away from where you are standing on Earth, how long does it take a light ray to travel from the Earth to the Moon? First, show your answer in hours in scientific notation. Then convert your answer to seconds. Your final answers should be accurate to 3 decimal places.
240,000 miles/6.711E8 mi/hr = 2.4E5/6.711E8
= 2.4/6.711E3
= 0.3576E-3 hours
= 3.576E-4 hours, or 3.576*10^-4 hours (0.0003576 hours)
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To get seconds, multiply by 3600 (3.6E3)
= 3.576E-4 * 3.6E3
= 12.874E-1 seconds
= 1.287 seconds
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