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Light Minute
Name: kayleigh
Status: student
Age: 9
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999 - 2000
Question:
How far is a "light minute"?
Replies:
18 million km (~11 million miles).
Tim Mooney
It is good that you asked how far a light minute is. Light travels at
about 300,000,000 meters each second. If we multiply that by 60 seconds,
we get 18,000,000,000 meters. Now this is all numbers. Let me try to make
it a bit more real for you.
To walk from Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA would take months. To drive
would take about 4-5 days. Flying takes about 4 hours. That seems very
fast. If you did the trip at the speed of light, ROUND TRIP (not one way
as above) would be 47.5 times in one second! You have asked about a
distance that would be 60 times more. That may seem far. In our universe,
we are still in our local neighborhood of the solar system.
Nathan A. Unterman
A light minute is the distance light can travel in one minute. Light
travels at about 186,000 miles per second - about seven laps of the
earth in one second! So...
186,000 miles (the number of miles light travels in one second)
times 60 (the number of seconds in one minute).
Larry Krengel
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Update: June 2012
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