* Posts by Gerard Mulholland

1 publicly visible post • joined 28 Apr 2007

UK airline pilots spot giant UFO

Gerard Mulholland

20 light years and the speed of light and funny green and yellow sightings

Light travels at 186, 000 miles a second.

x 60

That's 11, 160, 000 miles per minute.

x 60

That's 669, 600, 000 miles an hour

x 24

which is 16, 070, 400, 000 miles per day

x 365.25

which is 5, 869, 713, 600, 000 miles per year.

x 20

so 20 light years is 117, 394, 272, 000, 000 miles

that's 117 trillion, 394 billion 272 million miles.

As for how long it would take to travel 20 light years at a quarter of the speed of light just think about it.

To travel 1 mile at a quarter of a mile an hour it takes 4 hours, right?

So you just multiply by 4 and there you are!

To travel 20 light years at a quarter of the speed of light it would take 80 years

However the really interesting question is what on earth are these green and yellow things suddenly being spotted all over the place?

Mirages brought about by fundamental atmospheric alteration due to climate change?

Not very credible, I agree but no more and no less believable than UFOs.

How about some better ideas?