Light-minutes to Yards (lmin to yd)

1 light-minute equals 19,671,421,129 yards (rounded).

1 light-minute = 19,671,421,129 yards

How to convert light-minutes to yards

To convert light-minutes to yards, multiply the number of light-minutes by 19,671,421,129. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply yards by 5.083516811×10⁻¹¹ (rounded).

yards = light-minutes × 19,671,421,129

Example: 10 light-minutes = 196,714,211,286 yards.

About these units

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

Yard (yd)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

3 feet or 36 inches, exactly 0.9144 meters. Used for sports fields, fabric and short distances in the US and UK.

Yard descends from the Old English gerd or gyrd, meaning a branch, stave or measuring rod. It first appears in the late seventh-century laws of Ine of Wessex, though there it names a tax unit, the yardland. Around 959 to 963 King Edgar ordered that the measure held at Winchester be used throughout his realm, the earliest record of a prototype. A story that Henry I fixed the yard as the distance from his nose to his thumb is later folklore, and the true origin, whether pace, cubit or waist, remains speculative.

Britain defined the Imperial Standard Yard in 1824 as the distance between two marks on a brass rod at 62 degrees Fahrenheit. A fire in 1834 damaged the standard, a replacement was made in 1845, and the Weights and Measures Act 1855 recognized it. The 1959 international agreement then fixed the yard at exactly 0.9144 meter. Today it measures American and Canadian football fields, association football pitches and cricket pitches, appears on UK road signs for short distances, and is still used to sell fabric in the US and UK.

1 yard = 0.9144 meters (exactly).

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

Related conversions

See all length units.