# Hypothetical Speed of Light Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2020, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-speed-of-light-question/920150 "2020-09-09T11:20:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![by-tor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/by-tor/32/266_2.png) [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-speed-of-light-question/920150/1 "2020-09-09T11:20:16Z")
Hi. The question is: How many Astronomical Units could you travel in 1 minute at 5000 times the speed of light? Is this math correct? 186,000 miles x 60 seconds = 11,160,000 miles per minute. 1 AU = 93,000,000 miles. 11,160,000 miles per minute x 5000 = 55,800,000,000 miles per minute. 55,800,000,000/93,000,000= 600 AU per minute. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-speed-of-light-question/920150/2 "2020-09-09T12:57:24Z")
The math is good. Using your heavily rounded values of course. But the idea of “5000 times the speed of light” is nonsense until you start invoking worm holes, warp drives, or other features of science fiction, not science. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-speed-of-light-question/920150/3 "2020-09-09T12:59:53Z")
's not nonsense, it’s theoretical. ---
**Author:** ![by-tor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/by-tor/32/266_2.png) [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-speed-of-light-question/920150/4 "2020-09-09T13:10:13Z")
Thanks [LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy) I don’t really trust my math skills so I wanted to double check. Don’t worry, it is just for a home-brewed Space-opera RPG game that I am DMing later today. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-speed-of-light-question/920150/5 "2020-09-09T14:42:16Z")
If this was homework, I’d correct it to: 186,000 miles **per second** x 60 seconds **per minute** = 11,160,000 miles per minute. It’s always good to keep units explicitly part of the equation, as a way to check things. ---
**Author:** ![by-tor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/by-tor/32/266_2.png) [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-speed-of-light-question/920150/6 "2020-09-09T21:19:08Z")
Thanks for the correction [Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus) .