Question

A star is a swirling mass of dense gases powered by thermonuclear reactions. The great solar furnace transforms 7 million tons of mass into energy every second. How many tons of mass will be transformed into energy during the star's 10-billion-year lifetime. Hint: Find the number of seconds in 10 billion years.

Answer 1

2.20752 x
`10^(24)`

Explanation:

The first thing you have to do is to look for the number of seconds in one year. You have to multiply 365 days by 86,400 seconds.

• 365 days refer to the total number of days per year
• 86,400 seconds refer to the number of seconds per day

Let's solve.

• 365 x 86,400 = 31,536,000 or 3.1536 x
  `10^(7)`

Therefore, one year has 3.1536 x
`10^(7)` seconds.

Next, you have to know the number of seconds in 10 billion years.

• (3.1536 x
  `10^(7)`) x (1.0 x
  `10^(10)`) = 3.1536 x
  `10^(17)`

The last step is to multiply the number of seconds in 10 billion years to 7 million tons of mass per second.

• (3.1536 x
  `10^(17)`) x 7,000,000 = 2.20752 x
  `10^(24)`