The distance between the earth and the sun is roughly 100,000,000,000 meters. In

Question

The distance between the earth and the sun is roughly 100,000,000,000 meters. In one year, light light travels nearly 10,000,000,000,000,000 meters. Writing numbers out with all these zeros is not very convenient. Such quantities are usually written using powers of 10. We could express the earth/sun distance as 1×1011 meters and the distance light travels in a year as 1×1016 meters.

Note that 1011 means the number you would get by multiplying 10 times 10 times 10... a total of 11 times. This number, as you can see above, would be a one followed by eleven zeros. Similarly, we could express the light year (distance light travels in one year) as 1×1016 meters (a one followed by 16 zeroes).

How many times larger is the distance that light travels in a year compared to the distance between the earth and sun? Note that these powers of 10 follow the same rules that any exponents would follow.

Explanation / Answer

Distance between earth and sun = (1 x 10^11) m

And one light year = (1 x 10^16) m

So, the requisite ratio = one light year / Distance between earth and sun

= (1 x 10^16) / (1 x 10^11) = 10^5

Therefore, one light year is 10^5 times larger than the distance between the earth and the sun.

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