i think i understand light years but to get to say the sun its 7 light minutes to get to the moon its light seconds etc what the hell is the difference?
Its not going to take a light year to get to these places so you have to cut the light year up into minutes and seconds, smaller values, its the same though just smaller pieces of the same pie.
Light seconds is how far light travels in X seconds Light minutes is how far light travels in X minutes Light years is how far light travels in X years.
An average earth year is about 365.25 days, so times 24 hours per day, and 60 minute in an hour, so that makes 525960 minutes in a year, 60 seconds in a minute so 31557600 seconds in a year. So a light minute is 1/525960 th of a light year, and a light second is 1/31557600 th of a light year.
A light year is how far light can travel in one year. A light minute is how far light can travel in one minute. A light second is how far light can travel in one second. So a light minutes is 60 times as far as a light second. If the sun in 7 light minutes from the earth , then if something flicked a switch and turned off the sun at 9:00AM, we on earth would not be in the dark until 9:07. The sun would have been turned off for 7 minutes before it got dark here. ( Kind of like a water spigot at the top of a hill. When it is on, water runs down the hill. But when you turn it off, the water already on the hill keeps running until it has reached the bottom. Turning off the spigot does not mean the bottom suddenly has no water, what is in transit must still arrive.) Hope that helps.
1 light minute = how far light goes in 1 minute 1 light year = how far it goes in a year 1 light second = how far light goes in a second lol wow
