Distance from main frame

[Bear76]

Seriously??  Ok...how about this then..

"The Question
(Submitted April 14, 1998)

Why does it take so long for a photon to escape from the sun? How would the amount of interactions affect this time?


The Answer
The core of the Sun is extremely hot, many millions of degrees, so electrons are stripped from their atoms. This means that there are a lot of free electrons whizzing around in the Sun. With the densities that are typical for the core of the Sun (a few gm/cm3) there will be many interactions with photons. It is the density and the effective cross section of an electron , and the average velocity of an electron (usually determined from the temperature) which determine the amount of time for an interaction (or, actually, between interactions). The size of the Sun, and the average distance a photon travels between interactions ("mean free path") determines the number of interactions (its actually proportional to the square of (radius of sun)/ (mean free path). Once we plug in the right numbers for the Sun, I get a number of about 100,000 years. I think the more "official" number is about 1 million years.

Steve Bloom
for Ask an Astrophysicist "

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980414a.html

notice the '.gov' in the address?

Anything with .gov? We all know the government is ALWAYS right 

[bcadoo]

Anything with .gov? We all know the government is ALWAYS right  

I don't particularly give any special credence to the .gov domain but he specifically asked for one...

[mensa180]

Lol, America?  Seriously?  Try the European Space Agency.

[bcadoo]

Lol, America?  Seriously?  Try the European Space Agency.

right.....help me remember...how many people have they put on the moon?

[mechanic]

are we counting the nazi moon bases?

[1701E]

See Rule #6

[bacon8tr]

ok...the headache had turned into a full blown migrane...................... ............

[Rino]

     Humor Low Light blinking, Captain!

[Roadblck]

Regarding Mensa....

I can't figure out if he's kidding, trying to win the "troll of the year" award, or genuinely as misinformed as he seems to be. 

 

[mensa180]

Trying to do LLogann a favor and explain proper mathematics.

[CAV]

Seems to me, as a lay person, that the lag time between east & west coast is quite great?

Just so know, I play from Boise too....

Using Qwest  next to "0" lag for me.

Cavalry

[mechanic]

"number 23, put down the sledge and report to the head office. you have been warned about this before. Thank you."


Mensa, if they cant see the genius of your theories then let them be ignorant. It happens to all the great minds, the new ideas scare people. Light speed scares people. A lack of bacon is very scary to anyone. Give it time sir, they will work it out. Do not give up with the new just because the old has not caught up yet.

[Guppy35]

Regarding Mensa....

I can't figure out if he's kidding, trying to win the "troll of the year" award, or genuinely as misinformed as he seems to be. 

 

The answer would be yes

[milesobrian]

And the speed of light has to do with this conversation how?

Because the speed of light is what they say the signal moves at roughly before you count in other factors like the quality of the cable its going through and stuff

[Roadblck]

The answer would be yes

   I see what you did there.