Calculating the Distance Light Travels in One Year
To show that the distance light travels in one year is approximately \( 9.5 \times 10^{15} \) meters, we follow these steps:
1. Calculate the number of seconds in one year:
- There are 60 seconds in a minute.
- There are 60 minutes in an hour.
- There are 24 hours in a day.
- There are 365 days in a year (ignoring leap years for this calculation).
So, the number of seconds in a year is:
\( 60 \times 60 \times 24 \times 365 = 31,536,000 \) seconds.
2. Multiply the number of seconds by the speed of light:
The speed of light is given as \( 3.00 \times 10^8 \) meters per second.
Therefore, the distance light travels in one year is:
\( 31,536,000 \text{ seconds/year} \times 3.00 \times 10^8 \text{ meters/second} \)
3. Perform the multiplication:
\( 31,536,000 \text{ s} \times 3.00 \times 10^8 \text{ m/s} = 9.4608 \times 10^{15} \text{ meters} \)
Therefore, to two significant figures, the distance light travels in one year is approximately \( 9.5 \times 10^{15} \) meters, as requested to show.
