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Question

Tarun got to know from his elder brother that sun is the nearest star and is approximately 150 million kilometers away from the earth. He wanted to know which is the next nearest star and what is its distance from the earth. His tutor told him that the nearest star is proxima centauri and is at a distance of 4.3 light years from the earth. Tarun does not know what a light year is. Can you tell him?


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Solution

Explanation

A light year is a unit of measuring distance. It is used to measure distance of other celestial bodies from earth.

  1. A light year is the distance a beam of light travel in single earth year.
  2. In 1 second light travel 3×108m
  3. In 1 minutes or 60second light travel3×108×60m
  4. In 1hour or 60 minutes light travel 3×108×60×60=3×108×3600m
  5. In 1 day or 24 minutes light travel 3×108×3600×24=3×108×86400m
  6. In 1 day or 24 minutes light travel 3×108×3600×24=3×108×86400m
  7. In 1 year or 365 days light travel 3×108×86400×365=3×108×31536000=94608000×108=9.46×1015m
  8. That is 1 light year is equal to 9.46×1015m distance
  9. So 4.3 light year is equal to 4.678×1016m
  10. 1000m=1km,therefore 4.678×1016m= 4.678×1013km.

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