Light from Sun to Earth in seconds

[Zack]

Hi,
I'm a middle school student who enjoys astronomy and I volunteer at a local science center. At that science center I have no trouble answering questions about the visual aspect of astronomy, but I do run into some trouble when I am asked about the "techy" or mathmatical side of the science. Therefore, I went to the local used book store and picked up "Universe (fifth edition)" to enhance my knowledge of some of the mathmatical formulas used in astronomy. I'm having a bit of difficulty answering this question:

The speed of light is 3.00 x 10^8 m/s. How long does it take light to travel from the Sun to Earth? Give your answer in seconds, using powers-of-ten notation.

The answer is 4.99 x 10^2

As far as I can tell, I have not overlooked anything in the chapter. Here is my work and my answer (1.496 x 10^8 being the distance from the Earth to the sun in meters)

Step 1- 1.496 x 10^11m = (3.00 x 10^8m/s)(t)

Step 2- 1.496 x 10^11m / 3.00 x 10^8m/s= t

Step 3- 499m/s x 10^3s = t

Step 4- 4.99 x 10^5s = t

Answer- 4.99 x 10^5s= t

What am I doing wrong here?

Forgive me if this thread is redundant, in the wrong forum, or too easy to for an answer

Thanks,
Zack

 

[Hurkyl]

1.496 / 3.00 is not 499.

I think I know what you did:

I bet you asked your calculator to compute:

(1.496 x 10^11) / (3.00 x 10^8)

to which it replied `499'.

Then, you computed 10^11 / 10^8 = 10^3.

And then said the answer was 499 x 10^3.

But you already asked your calculator to deal with that part -- so it was wrong to do it again.

 

[Zack]

O, sorry, I checked my work several times and thought I had cleared it of careless errors. Thanks!