Questions tagged [speed-of-light]
The speed of light is a fundamental universal constant that marks the maximum speed at which energy and information can propagate. Its value is $299792458\frac{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{s}}$.
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The speed of an impulse transmitted along a string
A supernova explosion on the far side of the Sun ejects a mass with approximately the same mass of the Sun directly at the back side of the Sun. If this ejected mass is travelling arbitrarily close to ...
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Northern lights / aurora borealis "pre-warning" - how does this work w.r.t timing and different particle / wave speeds?
There is an article in the newspaper today entitled "Northern lights predicted in US and UK on Monday night in wake of solar storms".
I assume that the reason that someone can make this ...
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How is it possible that photons already move at the speed of light the moment they pop into existence? [duplicate]
This is a thought experiment and I might be horribly wrong. If we have an electron-positron annihilation a photon pops into existence. This photon is then supposedly moving at speed of light at the ...
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Would the effective speed of an Alcubierre drive be limited by the propagation speed of gravity?
The idea of a warp drive is to "expand space behind the ship and contract it in front"- in this way reaching a target destination faster than one could conventionally. However, the actual ...
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Can anyone explain the relationship between the refractive index, the speed, wavelength and angle of a wave?
Can anyone explain the relationship between the refractive index, the speed, wavelength and angle of a wave?
in my book is states that $$n = \frac{v_1}{v_2} = \frac{\sin θ_1}{\sin θ_2} = \frac{λ_1}{...
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Why is $c = \frac{1}{\sqrt{\mu_0 \epsilon_0}}$?
I'm sorry if this is a duplicate but I didn't find my answer. I'm currently studying maxwell's equations and I know that by comparing the wave equation for either the magnetic or the electric field
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Does light accelerate? [duplicate]
If considering the general formula for acceleration, ie.
Δ V/ΔT, we would get zero as the velocity of light is constant and does not change.
However, what about when photons travel through different ...
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Can we use the fabric of spacetime to go faster than the speed of light?
If the fabric of spacetime isn't bound by the limit of the speed of light (the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light), could humans somehow wrap a spaceship in a bubble of the fabric of ...
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On the (variable?) nature of $\epsilon_0$ and $\mu_0$
In electromagnetism, the electric displacement field D represents the distribution of electric charges in a given medium resulting from the presence of an electric field E. Its relation to ...
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When light passes from one medium to another. Depending on the density, it would experience a change in velocity. Why would its vector change as well?
For example, when light passes through water its velocity decreases and refraction occurs. Why? Why is there a change in direction. If I slow down a car I don’t suddenly turn left.
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Could relativity be consistent if there are multiple light-like fields with different invariant speeds?
My understanding of real physical theory of electromagnetism goes like this:
The Maxwell equations can be used to derive the speed of light;
$$\nabla\cdot\textbf{E}=0$$
$$\nabla\cdot\textbf{B}=0$$
$$\...
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Determining the time elapsed between two events in
I want to determine the time a photon needs in order to cover a distance, say $l_0$, where $l_0$ is the length of a spaceship (reference system S'). So, the photon is going from one end of the ...
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Equivalence of speed and time flow
Is it right to assume that in 4-dimensional spacetime the speed of any object is constant?
I mean a stationary object travels straight to the future but any spatial movement simply means that the ...
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General relativity vs newtonian mechanics [duplicate]
My high school textbook briefly touched the topic of black holes, and this is how it defined them:
"Consider a spherical body of mass $M$ and radius $R $. Suppose,due to some reason the volume ...
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Speed in a medium
Let's say, that there is medium, where the speed of light is $10^8 \, \rm m/s$. So in that medium if there exists a particle that is moving through without any hindrance what would be the speed limit ...
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