It takes light one second to travel 2.998 × 108 m. How many kilometers does light travel in a day?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To find the distance light travels in a day we need to first find the distance it travels in one second and then multiply it by the number of seconds in a day.

Distance traveled by light in one second = 2.998 × 108 m 
Number of seconds in a day = 24 hours × 60 minutes/hour × 60 seconds/minute = 86,400 seconds

Distance traveled by light in a day = (2.998 × 108 m/sec) × (86,400 sec/day) = 2.590 × 1010 m/day

To convert this to kilometers, we divide by 1000: 
2.590 × 1010 m/day = 2.590 × 107 km/day

Therefore, the best choice is B) 2.590 × 1010 km.

It Takes Light One Second to Travel 2