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v. t. e. The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted c, is a universal physical constant that is exactly equal to 299,792,458 metres per second (approximately 300,000 kilometres per second; 186,000 miles per second; 671 million miles per hour).
The light-travel distance to the edge of the observable universe is the age of the universe times the speed of light, 13.8 billion light years. This is the distance that a photon emitted shortly after the Big Bang, such as one from the cosmic microwave background, has traveled to reach observers on Earth. Because spacetime is curved ...
The particle horizon, also called the cosmological horizon, the comoving horizon, or the cosmic light horizon, is the maximum distance from which light from particles could have traveled to the observer in the age of the universe. It represents the boundary between the observable and the unobservable regions of the universe, so its distance at ...
The speed of light in vacuum is defined to be exactly 299 792 458 m/s (approx. 186,282 miles per second). The fixed value of the speed of light in SI units results from the fact that the metre is now defined in terms of the speed of light. All forms of electromagnetic radiation move at exactly this same speed in vacuum.
Michelson–Morley experiment. For interference experiments on matter, see Hughes–Drever experiment. The Michelson–Morley experiment was an attempt to measure the motion of the Earth relative to the luminiferous aether, [ A 1 ] a supposed medium permeating space that was thought to be the carrier of light waves.
The engraving is probably posthumous. Rømer's determination of the speed of light was the demonstration in 1676 that light has an apprehensible, measurable speed and so does not travel instantaneously. The discovery is usually attributed to Danish astronomer Ole Rømer, [ note 1 ] who was working at the Royal Observatory in Paris at the time.
So the average speed for the round trip remains the experimentally verifiable two-way speed, whereas the one-way speed of light is allowed to take the form in opposite directions: κ can have values between 0 and 1. In the extreme as κ approaches 1, light might propagate in one direction instantaneously, provided it takes the entire round-trip ...
In the case of electromagnetic radiation—such as light—in free space, the phase speed is the speed of light, about 3 × 10 8 m/s. Thus the wavelength of a 100 MHz electromagnetic (radio) wave is about: 3 × 10 8 m/s divided by 10 8 Hz = 3 m.