Why does light travel at the speed of light?

Answer 1

Light does not intend to travel at the speed of light
Light travels at a certain speed, it actually does not know its speed.
When scientists measured this speed they found it 299 792 458 m / s or about 186000 miles per second
so they make it fixed term, refereed as "the speed of light", used it in other physical equations...
then it "speed of light" became a famous term.
But Light still does not know that they called its velocity as the light speed..
And I think it will not know!

Answer 2

Light travels at the speed it does in order to satisfy Maxwell's equations. Light (or any electomagnetic radiation) is a result of the interaction between time varying magnetic and electric fields. A changing electic field produces a magnetic field, while a changing magnetic field produces an electric field. By using Maxwell's equations, you can determine the conditions in which each field produces the other in a self-sustaining way. That is, the electic field changes in a way that produces a changing magnetic field which in turn produces the electric field. The solution is a wave that travels at a velocity given by 1/sqrt(mu*epsilon), where mu and epsilon are natural constants of materials called permittivity and permeability. Therefore, in summary, the speed of light is detemined by the value of permittivity and permeability of the material the light is passing through. In a vacuum, these constants are called mu sub zero and epsilon sub zero. You can look up the values of these constants in a physics handbook, multiply them together and take the square root of the product and the reciprocal of that and you will get 3*10^8 meters per second, the velocity of light in a vacuum.

Answer 3

the speed of light is a result of many laws of electromagnetism, including Maxwell's equation. It is also important in relativity term. One funny thing to notice is that the important thing is about the number c and not with the physical speed of light itself. For example, if you can make light move slower, that has no impact on the relativity theory.

-If information could travel faster than the speed of light, then causes would happen before their effect. This is all after considering the special theory of relativity.

-One more thing, you know what? Usually speed is relative, but not the speed of light. If two observers are looking at light and one is moving close to its speed, it will not happen that light moves faster for one of them, rather what would happen is that time would dilate for one of them. Imagine that, one of them would take longer to age.

-(ok, this next one is gonna be very simplified. it's kinda more complex than it sounds, but the idea is still there.) Also just imagine, since energy could be converted into mass, how heavy a mass would get as it's approching the speed of light, taking kenitic energy equal to mv^2. It would become progessively harder for that mass to gain kinetic energy, and therefore speed. If you could make a graph of that, the assymptote of that graph would be c! Amazing right?

- In conclusion, don't forget that light has the speed of c in a vacuum only. The implications of light having a speed greater than c are very interesting. You have to kinda understand modern physics to get the supporting details behind a constant speed of light.There have been instances where people have made light travel at a speed higher than c, but it still remains that no information can be travelled at speeds greater than that of light.

Answer 4

Because the SI unit of length ( meter ) is defined by using the speed of light. What I mean is: Say light would travel faster or slower at some time in the future. The SI unit of speed ( meters per second ) would change accordingly. So light (in vacuum to be thorough) will travel at exactly 299,792,458 m/s as long as it is defined so.

Answer 5

It's a physical constant that cannot be derived from any equation. You CAN show that c=1/sqrt(e0*u0) using Maxwell's equation, but then there's the question of why those two constants are what they are. They are what they are because we have determined them to be so with emperical evidence (u0=4*pi*10^-7 in SI units just happens to fit the data of magnetic fields due to a current). But why does the empirical evidence look like it does?! Nobody can tell you that (yet). It's just one of those things that defines the universe.

Ponder this: Why is the charge of an electron 1.602*10^-19 C? Why is the mass of an electron 9.11*10^-31 kg? These are (as of now) unanswerable questions

Answer 6

Light travels at the speed of light because light is made of photons, and when one measures the speed of light he actually measures the speed of a photon, therefore:
light=photons
photons=speed of light

Answer 7

because
light = light
therefore
light speed = light speed

Answer 8

light is made of photons now photons have no mass
and the maximum speed the thing ray or particle travel decided by the supreme of the cosmos is 300000km/s
so
P=mv(where p is momentum)
the momentum of light is 0 becoz it has no mass
so the v will be infinite
tht is 300000km/s
ok??

Answer 9

I think the better question is why the heck are you so dumb.




I'm you "Why does a car traveling 3 miles per hour travel 3 miles per hour"

Answer 10

it dosent always travel at that speed
it depends on the refractive index of the medium
sooooo....dont worry


To hte guy below me:
Hey,the charge of an electron has a pefect proof called the milkman oil-drop experiment