Calculating Light Travel Time Through Different Materials

[BuBbLeS01]

[SOLVED] Simple speed of light problem

Homework Statement

How long does it take light to travel trough a 5.23-mm-thick piece of window glass?

Trough what thickness of water could light travel in the same amount of time?

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

I thought I could just do the speed of light divided by the thickness to get my seconds but that's not right so can someone please help me?

 

[BuBbLeS01]

nevermind...got it

 

[Moetasim]

To solve this problem, we can use the equation speed = distance/time, where speed is the speed of light (approximately 3 x 10^8 m/s), distance is the thickness of the material, and time is the time it takes for light to travel through the material.

For the first part of the problem, we can plug in the given values and solve for time:

speed = distance/time
3 x 10^8 m/s = 5.23 x 10^-3 m / time
time = 1.74 x 10^-11 seconds

So it would take approximately 1.74 x 10^-11 seconds for light to travel through a 5.23-mm-thick piece of window glass.

For the second part of the problem, we can use the same equation and solve for the distance:

speed = distance/time
3 x 10^8 m/s = distance / 1.74 x 10^-11 seconds
distance = 5.22 x 10^-3 meters

Therefore, light could travel through approximately 5.22 mm of water in the same amount of time.

I hope this helps!