Within the Solar System, a convenient unit of measurement is the Earth-Sun distance, called an astronomical unit (AU). For bigger distances, we use the light year (LY), the distance that light travels in one year. Starting with the values you can look up in the Appendices for the speed of light and the astronomical unit, calculate how many “light minutes” there are in 1 AU.

Within the Solar System, a convenient unit of measurement is the Earth-Sun distance, called an astronomical unit (AU). For bigger distances, we use the light year (LY), the distance that light travels in one year. Starting with the values you can look up in the Appendices for the speed of light and the astronomical unit, calculate how many “light minutes” there are in 1 AU.

Astronomy

1st Edition

ISBN:9781938168284

Author:Andrew Fraknoi; David Morrison; Sidney C. Wolff

Publisher:Andrew Fraknoi; David Morrison; Sidney C. Wolff

Chapter19: Celestial Distances

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 7E: While a meter is the fundamental unit of length, most distances traveled by humans are measured in...

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