How long does it take for the suns rays to reach earth?
Earth is closest to the sun on Jan. 3. It is roughly 147,500,000~ Kilometers from the sun for a total of 91652250.86 miles. Light travels at the speed of EXACTLY 299,792,458 metres per second. (299792.458 km/s). From the sun to the earth at the shortest time of the year it is roughly, 492.007 seconds to reach the earth. That equates to 8.2 minutes (.2 being 1/5 of a minute. 60/5 = 12) so 8minutes and 12 seconds at the shortest time to reach earth. It is roughly 152,500,000~ Kilometers from the sun at its furthest distance (July 4th). Using the same mathmatics it would then take light 508.685 seconds to reach the earth. That equating to 8.5 minutes. So 8 minutes 30 seconds at the furthest distance to reach earth.
Assuming that you know the average distance of the Earth from the sun is 93 million miles and light travels at 186,000 miles per second you can calculate the time to be about 500 seconds which divided by 60 gives you 8 and 1/3 minutes… Of course that number is just the average. In any given moment on a given day the exact distance may differ by perhaps a few millions of miles because earth’s orbit is not perfectly circular. Right now it is probably closer than it is most of the year – so it may take 8.2 seconds today, but in the middle of summer inthe northern hemisphere it is probably closer to 8.4 seconds… If you are talking about the sunlight that is being reflected from the moon or more distant planets it would of course take longer to reach us.
