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#1
Feb 8 2012 02:28pm
Hello,
I've always been confused about light years
can someone please explain to me why light years is a measurement of distance, and what it has to do with time.
like I don't understand how something that we see is actually in the past (if I interpreted what I know about light years correctly)

this isn't for school by the way I'm just curious
I tried googling it, but I could not find anything that wasn't an extremely technical definition.
I'm only in grade 11 so please if you could explain it in layman's terms, that would be great.
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#2
Feb 8 2012 03:03pm
light years is the distance light travels in a year. light travels at a constant speed (the speed of light = 299 792 458 m / s).

When you look up at the night sky, it took the light emitted by the stars you're looking at awhile to reach earth. That's the idea of why you're looking into the past.

This post was edited by Derkaderk on Feb 8 2012 03:19pm
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#3
Feb 8 2012 03:49pm
because these distances are fucking ginormous.
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#4
Feb 8 2012 04:10pm
Quote (Derkaderk @ Feb 8 2012 05:03pm)
light years is the distance light travels in a year. light travels at a constant speed (the speed of light = 299 792 458 m / s).

When you look up at the night sky, it took the light emitted by the stars you're looking at awhile to reach earth. That's the idea of why you're looking into the past.


yea ok, that's what I was looking for.
It's clear now, thanks
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