Scientific Notation

The speed of light has symbol c like in the equation E=mc2 the E is energy, m is mass and c2 is the speed of
light squared.

Using experiments it has been found that the speed of light is about 300000000 m/s which is the same as
300000 km/s.

Scientific notation is a way of writing very big numbers without using a lot of ink.

A number such as 5x1025 is a 5 with 25 zeroes, 50000000000000000000000000

A number such as Ax10n is in scientific notation if the number A is between 1 and 10 and n is a whole
number.

5 x 1025 is in scientific notation but the number 11 x 103 is not.

Recall that 102 = 10x10 = 100, 103 = 10x10x10 = 1000,

How many zeroes does 107 have? It will have 7 zeroes. The number of zeroes is always the same as the
power of ten.

If the number has a decimal then the power moves the decimal to the right by that many places

For example, 9.3 x 106 = 9300000 has only 5 zeroes but the decimal was moved 6 times.

Exercises

1. Change the following from scientific notation to the normal decimal form.

a. 5 x 103

b. 3 x 108

c. 3 x 105

d. 2.9 x 108

e. 8.4 x 101

2. Change the following from decimal to scientific notation.

a. 30000

b. 900

c. 700000000

d. 220

e. 555000
Speed
Speed is measured in kilometres per hour which can be written as kph or km/hr

Speed is also measured in km/s or m/s.

Speed is always measured by dividing distance by time so the formula for speed is

𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 =
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
A way of remembering how to rearrange the formula is by using the triangle

(Remember the best angle to use in maths is the try-angle)

From the triangle:

𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 = 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
, 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑥 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 = 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑

Seconds in a year
During many of the calculations with speed of light you will need to be able to calculate the number of
seconds in a year. To do this use the fact that there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24
hours in a day and about 365 days in a year so
60 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠 60 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠 24 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 365 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠
1 year = 1 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒
× 1 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟
× 1 𝑑𝑎𝑦
× 1 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟
= 31536000 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠

Light years (ly)

A light year is the distance light travels in one year. A light year is often abbreviated as ly. The speed of
light is c = 300000 km/s or c = 3x105 km/s so a light year is

distance = speed x time = 300000 km/s x 31536000 seconds in 1 year

1 ly = 9460800000000 km = about 9.5 x 1012 km.

Distances to stars
The star that is closest to the Earth is the sun is 149 600 000 Km

The Sun's nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri, is 4.2 light years away

It takes light from alpha centauri 4.2 years to reach our eyes. In kilometres alpha centauri is

4.2 x 9.5 x 1012 km = 39.9 x1012 or about 4 x 1013 kilometres away.

And that is the closest star. Space is BIG

Using the distance from the sun to earth and the speed of light, the time it takes for the light to reach us
after leaving the sun is

Time = distance/speed = 149600000/300000 = 499 seconds or about 8.33 minutes

499 seconds/60 = 8.33 minutes

The light from the sun left about 8 minutes and 20 seconds ago!

Exercises

1. Answer the following in light years

a. The Magellanic cloud is a nearby galaxy that looks like a cloud in the night sky. It takes 163
thousand years for the light to reach us from the Magellanic cloud. How far away is it?

b. It takes 642 years for the light from Betelgeuse to reach earth. How far away is it?

c. The distance to the centre of the milky way galaxy is 2.5 x 1017 km. How many light years is that?

d. The average distance to the moon is about 350000 km. How far away is that in light years? In light
seconds?

2. Answer the following in km

a. How many kilometres in 50 ly.

b. How far in kilometres does light travel in 50 years?