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How much of the total energy that leaves the sun makes it to earth? Why?

Answer 1

Aaron Anderson

We intercept #(pi*d^2)/4 = "113,097,335 km"^2#

We're #"150,000,000 km"# apart on average. Earth is only #"12,000 km"# in diameter. The sun emits in all directions.

We subtend a tiny surface when viewed from the sun, with a small fraction in the line of its energy.

At #"150,000,000 km"#, the surface is the area of that sphere, which is equal to

#"area" = 4 * pi * "150,000,000 km"^2 = 2.82743 * 10^17 "km"^2#

We intercept

#(pi*d^2)/4 = "113,097,335 km"^2 = +- 0.00000004%#

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Answer 2

Santiago Arce

To workout the problem we need to understand the concept of solid angle.

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Answer 3

Audrey Adams

About 1 billionth of the total energy emitted by the Sun reaches Earth. This is due to factors such as distance, absorption, and scattering of solar radiation by the Earth's atmosphere.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.