Inches to Light-minutes (in to lmin)

1 inch equals 1.412088003×10⁻¹² light-minutes (rounded).

1 inch = 1.412088003×10⁻¹² light-minutes

How to convert inches to light-minutes

To convert inches to light-minutes, multiply the number of inches by 1.412088003×10⁻¹². The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply light-minutes by 708,171,160,630 (rounded).

light-minutes = inches × 1.412088003×10⁻¹²

Example: 10 inches = 1.412088003×10⁻¹¹ light-minutes.

About these units

Inch (in)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

1/12 of a foot. Defined as exactly 25.4 millimeters since 1959, when the US and Commonwealth countries agreed a common international inch.

Latin uncia, meaning one-twelfth, is the root of both inch and ounce, and it passed into Old English as ynce. Roman measurers divided their foot into twelve unciae, and the English inch kept that twelfth. After 1066 an inch was reckoned as three barleycorns, and a 1324 statute attributed to Edward II spelled out the definition as three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end lengthwise. For centuries the inch was simply a twelfth of a foot, or a thirty-sixth of a yard, and the US and UK each kept their own copy of the standard yard.

Those copies differed slightly until the 1959 international agreement fixed the yard at exactly 0.9144 meter, which made the inch exactly 25.4 millimeters. The US adopted it in 1959 and the UK ratified it in 1963, effective 1964. Today the inch is still the customary unit in the United States and Canada, and the UK keeps it on road signs. Worldwide it also names display diagonals, wheel rims, tire codes and pipe sizes.

1 inch = 0.0254 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Inch; Wikipedia: Yard; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

Light-minute (lmin)

AstronomicalCurrent unit

The distance light travels in a minute (about 18 million km). The Sun is roughly 8.3 light-minutes from Earth.

Sunlight takes about 8.3 minutes to reach Earth, so the light-minute is the natural scale for the inner solar system. Its figure is exactly 60 light-seconds, which comes to 17,987,547,480 meters or about 18 million kilometers. The unit has no formal standing in the SI and no single inventor. It simply follows from the fixed speed of light, and it turns up in popular astronomy, in discussions of signal delays and in tables that give planetary distances as travel times.

Distance and delay are the same number in this unit, which makes it handy for spacecraft work. A signal to a distant spacecraft therefore cannot be answered instantly, because every light-minute of separation adds a minute each way. One astronomical unit is about 8.317 light-minutes, and Saturn's orbit at its closest approach to the Sun lies near 1.25 light-hours. Larger distances usually move up to light-hours or light-years.

1 light-minute = 17,987,547,480 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Light-minute; Wikipedia: Light-second

Related conversions

See all length units.