How long does it take light to travel to Earth from the Sun?
About eight minutes is “close enough for government work,” but if you REALLY want to KNOW, the relevant facts are that the speed of light is almost exactly 186,000 miles per second, and the average distance of the earth from the sun–longer axis slightly more, shorter axis slightly less–is 93,000,000 miles. Simple arithmetic tells us that the travel time of light from the sun to the earth is therefore 500 sec., give or take a little, depending on the precise position of Earth on its orbital path–500 seconds working out to 8 min. 20 sec., + or – that little bit.
