On http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light, it says:
"The speed of light in a vacuum is an important physical constant denoted by the letter c for constant or the Latin word celeritas meaning "swiftness".
[There.]
"In metric units, c is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second (or 1,079,252,848.8 km/h)."
What is meant by "vacuum" here? Certainly not a perfect vacuum, as "space can never be perfectly empty. A perfect vacuum, known as "free space", with a gaseous pressure of absolute zero is a philosophical concept with no physical reality, not least because quantum theory predicts that no volume of space is perfectly empty in this way." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum
The article on vacuum continues:
"Physicists often use the term "vacuum" slightly differently. They discuss ideal test results that would occur in a perfect vacuum, which they simply call "vacuum" in this context, and use the term partial vacuum to refer to the imperfect vacua realized in practice."
[ibid.]
TBC
2006-09-18
09:30:00
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3 answers
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asked by
sauwelios@yahoo.com
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