FACTOR
&
APPROXIMATE

1. Use Algebra 101 rules to rearrange the equation.
   
   
2. Our next step is to square both sides to delete the radical.
   
   
   
3. Next, we substitute the numbers we know, or think we know, into the equation. Use 1.37e10 if you believe God created the entire universe in 6 days. Use 4.57e09 if you believe God's 6 day labor refers only to the Earth. If you think your results will be more accurate, use 365.2425 as the length of the average year. Plug these numbers into the calculator and reduce the known side to one number.
   
   
4. You have now calculated the ratio of t_God to t_man. Call this ratio r. Square it. What's that number? This is for you to do. Move it to box A.
   
   
   
5. Substitute kc for v. This will make calculations easier. Otherwise, you would need to convert light speed in seconds to light speed in years. It would not be pretty.
   
   
6. Expand (kc)² out to k²c² so we can cancel out c². This simplifies the equation somewhat.
   
   
   
7. Rearrange the equation again. You have already calculated r². Can you solve for k? Remember: r is the ratio of t_God to t_man.
   
   
8. Ooooops...Thought you could solve it, didn't you? But when you subtracted r² from 1, you got 1. In other words, you got nowhere because your calculator ran out of digits. It's just not precise enough to handle such small differences. So it rounded off to the nearest number that it knew: 1. We, however, know that there is a number just a little less than 1 that we are looking for. We need to play a trick using approximation.
   
   Since it is the difference of two squares, you can factor
   1-r².
   
9. Our calculator says that 1+r equals 1. It lies! But we will play along and use this approximation to find k². First, find 1-r. Now, can you solve for k?