As thermonuclear fusion proceeds in its core, the Sun loses mass at a rate of 3.64 109 kg/s. During the 5,000-yr period of recorded history, by how much has the length of the year changed due to the loss of mass from the Sun?

Suggestions: Assume the Earth's orbit is circular. No external torque acts on the Earth–Sun system, so the angular momentum of the Earth is constant.

Question

As thermonuclear fusion proceeds in its core, the Sun loses mass at a rate of 3.64  109 kg/s. During the 5,000-yr period of recorded history, by how much has the length of the year changed due to the loss of mass from the Sun?

Suggestions: Assume the Earth's orbit is circular. No external torque acts on the Earth–Sun system, so the angular momentum of the Earth is constant.

anonymous · Answer

sorry thats 3.64 x 10^9 kg/s

anonymous · Answer

3.64 x 10^9 kg/s
3,640,000,000 kg/s

so unless i'm totally lost, i believe this is just a conversion problem, we were given a time (yr) we are given a rate, mass/time, (kg/sec) and are looking for a mass (kg).

so the rate is the 'middle man' for us to go from time in years to mass [answer]

first convert 5000 yrs into seconds
then times that by the rate, and then the answer will be the amount of mass.

see how the units of seconds cancel out when we multiply them? units act similar to how an x or a y would act if we did multiplication on it as a fraction
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