Given that the sun is 696000 km in radius and light from the core of the sun takes something like 50000 years to reach the surface, what is the average speed of light in m/s? Ho does this compare to the speed of light in a vacuum of 3.00e8 m/s. What formula should I use to solve this?
+23254 If you consider the core of the sun to be its center (actually, it isn't; but we'll handle that later), the speed of light would be determined by the distance it travels divided by the length of time:
696,000 km / 50,000 years = 13.92 km/yr.
To compare this to the speed of light in a vacuum, we need to convert the above into m/s.
There are 1000 m in a km and approximately 31,500,000 seconds in a year.
---> 13.92 km/yr x (1000 m/1 km) x (1 yr/31,500,000 sec) = 0.00044 m/s
This is very slow as compared to the speed in a vacuum because of the density of the sun. (Picture light as being a particle; it's being bounced around, therefore, it takes a long time to escape.)
Actually, the core of the sun is about 1/5th to 1/4th of the sun. Since light is not travelling from the center of the sun, the speed of light is still slower; reduce the speed by 1/5th or 1/4th.
+23254 If you consider the core of the sun to be its center (actually, it isn't; but we'll handle that later), the speed of light would be determined by the distance it travels divided by the length of time:
696,000 km / 50,000 years = 13.92 km/yr.
To compare this to the speed of light in a vacuum, we need to convert the above into m/s.
There are 1000 m in a km and approximately 31,500,000 seconds in a year.
---> 13.92 km/yr x (1000 m/1 km) x (1 yr/31,500,000 sec) = 0.00044 m/s
This is very slow as compared to the speed in a vacuum because of the density of the sun. (Picture light as being a particle; it's being bounced around, therefore, it takes a long time to escape.)
Actually, the core of the sun is about 1/5th to 1/4th of the sun. Since light is not travelling from the center of the sun, the speed of light is still slower; reduce the speed by 1/5th or 1/4th.
