Interesting Light Year Facts & Other Fun Facts

IMPORTANT INFO: THIS IS ALL FIGURED USING THE DEFINITION OF "YEAR" THAT STATES THAT EACH YEAR IS 365 DAYS. THE ASTRONOMICAL DEFINITION(EXACT DEFINITION) IS STATED AND USED LATER ON IN THE POST.

the equation:
speed of light= 300,000 km/s
seconds in a year= 31,536,000
inches in a kilometer= 39,370.0787

300,000 x 31,536,000= km/year= 9,460,800,000,000
km/year x 39,370.0787(inches in km)= 372,472,441,000,000,000


therefore, there are 372,472,441,000,000,000 inches in a light year
31,039,370,100,000,000 feet in a light year
10,346,456,700,000,000 yards in a light year
103,464,567,000,000 football fields in a light year
5,878,668,580,000 miles in a light year
224,216,203,000 marathons in a light year
2,630,276,770 Tour de France's* in a light year
236,076,412 stretched out Earth's(circumferences) in a light year

*when using the 2,235 mile layout


keep in mind that there are two different definitions of a year...there is the calendar year, which is simply 365 days, and there is an astronomical year which is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds long...the astronomical one being more exact because it represents the time between one vernal equinox and the next...which is our calendar year, roughly...we make up for this when we have a leap year every four years...but considering that, we actually have "made up for" more time than we have "lost" since we started using leap years...the "exact date" and "time" are actually completely unknown because of this...we really are a mess...scientifically speaking, we can never really be late, early, or on time to anywhere considering these variables......another fun fact: each day is 1.93424658 seconds too short during a non-leap year...that means that each "second" is .0000223871132 seconds too short during a non-leap year...insane, right?!


*when using the 2,235 mile layout


special thanks to Google for providing a handy online calculator for all the figuring of the many equations used for this post