The speed of light is 3 x 10^8 meters/seconds. If the sun is 1.5 x 10^11 meters from earth, how many seconds does it take light to reach the earth? Express your answer in scientific notation.

D = r x t distance is equal to the rate of speed multiplied by time. Thus t = d : r This is the relationship we'll use to solve this problem. Now, let's organize our dа ta:

r = 300,000,000 m/s Let's write this using scientific notation: r = 3 x 108 m/s d = 1.5 x 1011 m t = d : r ⇒ t = 1.5 x 1011 : 3 x 108 or: t =.5 x 103 That is: 500 seconds or about 8.3 minutes so basically the answer is the sunlight takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach earth.