Does the light from ;ighters travel at the speed of light? What is it about light that makes it travel at 876,000 miles per hour (or whatever the limit of speed is)?
2006-08-08 15:49:49 · 9 answers · asked by Hymn 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The speed of the light leaving this creature under water is the same as the speed of light in vacuum. Light only exists in vacuum, this is something that people get confused alot. In a medium, that is, in an actual molecule of the substance, not in between, the light exists as energy which is used to excite the molecule/particle. Light always moves at the speed of light. It only appears to move slower in mediums because the light is absorbed and reemitted, which takes time. The apparent speed of light in water is about 2/3s of that in vacuum. ammounting to about 200,000,000 meters per second. I don't know, nor do I want to know about fundemental constants in miles per second. It is not useful....
2006-08-08 19:15:58 · answer #1 · answered by Roger N 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
From the tone of your question, it sounds like you are asking if all light is the same.
As far as we've discovered, light is just that. There aren't brands of light. The main difference between light is their wavelength. For instance, Red light and blue light have different wavelengths and have different amounts of energy.
The speed of light that you quote is actually the speed of light in a vaccum. Light slows down in other media, but not significantly. Plus, when you're talking about the amount of time light spends travelling, that time only becomes significant when you're taking about scales in space, or nearly a vaccum.
Finally, why does light have the speed that it has?
Well... its kinda not true.
Do you know the story of how the length of a meter was first defined? They have a block somewhere in france that is 1mx1mx1m. Why? because we say so.
That's similar to light.
As of 1983, the length of 1 m was defined as the distance travelled by light, in 1/299,792,458 of a second. So why does light travel the speed it does? Because we sy so and because its constant.
So here's the real question. Why is the speed of light constant?
There's a lot of Math behind it. The short version is that IF the speed of light WASN'T constant, then many things would stop making sense in our current definitions. One example I can give is the reltionship between frequency and wavelength
The frequency of light times its wavelength ie equal to the speed of light. Always. So, if the speed of light weren't constant, this equation wouldn't be true. But this equation has proven true, so the best explanation is that the speed of light is constant.
Hope this helps,
best of luck!
2006-08-08 16:10:48 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, the light from these creatures do travel at the speed of light. However, the speed that you mentioned above is the speed of light in a vacuum. The speed of light in water is slightly slower.
2006-08-08 16:15:08 · answer #3 · answered by ET 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's 670 million miles per hour - and it's just the laws of physics of this universe. The faster you go, the slower time goes - so I suppose you could say that is how fast you have to go for time to stop completely. Of course, only light can really go the speed of light.
2006-08-08 16:12:29 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The speed of light is measured in a vacuum. If a bioluminescent sea creature could live in a vacuum,. then the light would leave their bodies at the normal speed of light. In water, the speed of light is a little slower.
2006-08-08 16:01:21 · answer #5 · answered by Bernard B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes it does
186,000 mps
We don't know why. That is the realm of metaphysics or philosophy. We don't know why it's not 50,000 mps or 958,000 mps. Our physics in this universe are structured this way.
All electromagnetic energy goes the same speed in any given environment. The energy passes along each point in space-time and is sort of passed along by the energy and virtual particles that exist. Although sometimes it doesn't seem that there is actually any "traveling" it is more of a potential of energy along the patth between source and where it ends up. We jsut don't understand it fully yet and may never.
2006-08-08 15:53:38 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
light has zero mass,which allows for it to travel that the faster possible speed allowed by the fabric of the universe. Basicially, without the constraints of mass, light can travel at a speed that is limited only by the ability of space itself to conduct electromagnetic waves.
2006-08-08 18:39:43 · answer #7 · answered by abcdefghijk 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
don't be jealous. even you radiate light in wavelenths that our eyeballs don't detect. do not be jealous of the light that your eye happen to be able to see. light escapes our own bodies in wavelengths we cannot see. visible light can be a somewhat insignificant study. the thing about light though that you might keep in mind is that all of it, whether suddenly emitted or having travelled some lightyears hence, is timeless. light does not experience time. from a lightwaves point of view, even as it has travelled a trillion lightyears of space has not aged even a single nanosecond. all that distance travelled in a single moment. imagine living all of the events of your life as a moment. it would be like a really quick movie, right? all of the lessons it's taken you 25 years to get a handle on, all happening at once in one blinding flash of a moment.....
2006-08-08 16:09:40 · answer #8 · answered by emptiedfull 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
probably a little slower in water but when it comes out of the water it would then move faster.
2006-08-08 15:56:10 · answer #9 · answered by wizard 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋