Question

Light travels 186,282 miles in one second. A light year is the distance light travels in one year. It is about 4.3 light years to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, (other than our sun!) How many miles away is Proxima Centauri? miles b)The distance from Los Angeles to New York is about 2,000 miles. If this distance is represented by the width of a grain of sand (say 1/100 of an inch) how many miles away would Proxima Centauri be? miles c) The diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is about 100,000 light years. With this representation used in (b) what would the diameter of the Milky Way be (in miles under our scale)? miles d) Imagine we now represent the Milky Way by a single grain of sand. The universe is 15 billion light years across. How many feet would this correspond to? feet

Answer 1

Answer:

$2.5278035226\times 10^{13}\ miles$

1994.7944465 miles

46390568.5227 miles

125 ft

Explanation:

$1\ ly=186282\times 365.25\times 24\times 60\times 60=5.8786128432\times 10^{12}\ mi$

$4.3\ ly=4.3\times 5.8786128432\times 10^{12}=2.5278035226\times 10^{13}\ miles$

The distance is $2.5278035226\times 10^{13}\ miles$

$2000\ miles=0.01\ in$

$2.5278035226\times 10^{13}\times \dfrac{1}{2000}=1.2639017613\times 10^{10}\ LA\ to\ NY$

Converting to inches

$1.2639017613\times 10^{10}\times 0.01=126390176.13\ in/LA\ to\ NY$

Converting to miles

$126390176.13\times\dfrac{1}{5280\times 12}=1994.7944465\ inches/LA\ to\ NY$

The distance is 1994.7944465 miles

$5.8786128432\times 10^{17}\times \dfrac{1}{2000}\times 0.01\times\dfrac{1}{5280\times 12}=46390568.5227\ miles$

The distance is 46390568.5227 miles

$5.8786128432\times 10^{12}\times 15\times 10^{9}=8.8179192648\times 10^{22}$

$8.8179192648\times 10^{22}\times \dfrac{1}{5.8786128432\times 10^{17}}=150000\ MW\ dia$

$150000\dfrac{1}{100\times 12}=125\ ft$

The distance is 125 ft