conversions travel problem

[bigman8424]

how long, in months to 3 sig. figs, would it take someone traveling 27500 mi/hr to go 1.43*10^12 meters

plz help, i'm horrible at conversions

[dextercioby]

What's the connection between time,speed and distance...?

Daniel.

[saltydog]

Tell you what big dude, figure that one then figure how far light travels in one nanosecond. I'm guessing about 10 feet. You finish yours, then try and work on mine. I'll let a day go by and then post how I figured it out if you still haven't done so.

[saltydog]

Tell you what big dude, figure that one then figure how far light travels in one nanosecond. I'm guessing about 10 feet. You finish yours, then try and work on mine. I'll let a day go by and then post how I figured it out if you still haven't done so.

Oh yea, I didnt' forget: How far does light go in a nanometer:

The important thing to remember about conversions is to arrange the quotients so that the units cancel. That's the purpose of this exercise:

So we have:

\text{Speed of light: }\frac{186000\quad\text{miles}}{1\quad\text{second }}

\text{feet in a mile:}\frac{5280\quad\text{feet}}{1\quad\text{mile }}

\text{nanoseconds in a second:}\frac{10^9\quad\text{nanoseconds}}{1\quad\ text{second}}


So:

\frac{186000\quad\text{miles}}{1\quad\text{second} }*\frac{5280\quad\text{feet}}{1\quad\text{mile}}*\ frac{1\quad\text{second}}{10^9\quad\text{nanosecon ds}}

Note how the units cancel leaving feet/nanosecond. It's about 1 foot. It's the same way with all the other conversion problems: Arrange the quotients so that the units cancel leaving you with what you want.