Questions: Approximately how many seconds are there in a microyear? 3.15 × 10^13 s 3.12 × 10^-2 s 3.17 × 10^-14 s 31.5 s

Solution Steps

We need to determine how many seconds are in a "microyear." A microyear is a millionth of a year, which can be expressed as \(10^{-6}\) years.

First, we need to know how many seconds are in one year. There are 365 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. Therefore, the number of seconds in a year is:

\[ 1 \text{ year} = 365 \times 24 \times 60 \times 60 = 31,536,000 \text{ seconds} \]

Since a microyear is \(10^{-6}\) of a year, we multiply the number of seconds in a year by \(10^{-6}\):

\[ \text{Seconds in a microyear} = 31,536,000 \times 10^{-6} = 31.536 \text{ seconds} \]

The closest option to our calculated value of 31.536 seconds is 31.5 seconds.

Final Answer