Journey to the edge of the solar system

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/05/23/voyager.2/index.html

According to this article at CNN, the Voyager II has spotted the edge of out solar system. According to NASA, it is 76AU in distance. 1 AU = 93,000,000 miles. I got to thinking, if you were to drive the speed limit of 55 mph, how long would it take to travel to the edge of our solar system? I then wondered how much would it cost in fuel to travel that far. If I did my math right, here are my results (the answers are in bold):

7,068,000,000 miles to edge of solar system
_______________

55 mph speed limit

7,068,000,000/55

= 128,509,091 hours

24 hrs/day

128,509,091/24

= 5,354,546 days

365 days/year

5,354,546/365

= 14,670 years

_______________

500 miles to tank of gas

500/7,068,000,000

= 14,136,000

20 gal gas tank

$2.77 gal/gas (local; 5-24-06)

20 * $2.77 = $55.40

$55.40 * 7,068,000,000

= $783,134,400

Click to expand...

14,670 years . . . that is a good reason to buy a radar detector and speed when the coppers are not looking.


$783,134,400 . . . does that include coasting downhill?

and is that with or without gas cap?

How much per gallon is gas out there?