The speed of anything is limited by physical properties, usually resistance (resistance of the air, resistance of the ground).
What is the physical property that limits the speed of photons in space?
2007-07-06 12:22:31 · 7 answers · asked by Ejsenstejn 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The speed of light is determined by the permittivity and permeability of free space. That determines how the electric and magnetic fields couple during the propagation of an electromagnetic wave. That explains why the speed of light in free space has the value it does. But of course it doesn't explain why the permittivity and permeability have the values they have.
2007-07-06 12:37:38 · answer #1 · answered by Frank N 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I would argue that the emissivity and permittivity of free space are a consequence, not a cause of the speed of light. The reason that the speed of light is c is that photons are massless and nothing can go faster than c.
C is much more fundamental than simply being the "speed of light." It's the speed of anything massless and the fastest speed there is. That is the way spacetime is built, and the reason why light travels at c.
2007-07-06 13:14:04 · answer #2 · answered by ZikZak 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The speed of light in a vacuum (or space) is defined as 299,792,458 meters per second. The reason a photon travels this fast is because it has a set of laws it has to follow based on the Maxwell Equations, created by James Clerk Maxwell back in the Nineteenth Century. However, back in 1983, the international group of physicists redefined the length of a meter. They decided to base it on the speed of light, and they define the meter as "the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second." So actually, the speed of light cannot change, because if it were to move any faster, then it would change the length of a meter, since its based on the speed of light.
2007-07-06 12:42:58 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Lorentz invariance demands that lightspeed be finite. The properties of the vacuum, magnetic permeability and electric permittivity, set lightspeed (Maxwell's equations).
Can lightspeed be ramped up? Yes indeed! Change the properties of the vacuum,
http://arXiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0107091
http://arXiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0010055
Phys. Lett. B236 354 (1990)
Phys. Lett. B250 133 (1990)
J Phys A26 2037 (1993)
http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw43.html
Scharnhorst effect
Can it be reduced to practice? No. Que sera.
2007-07-06 12:40:19 · answer #4 · answered by Uncle Al 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The speed of light falls out of the solution to Maxwells equations.
2007-07-06 12:27:50 · answer #5 · answered by none2perdy 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
hmmm... The lights nature I guess which is a wave or a particle...
2007-07-06 16:07:25 · answer #6 · answered by YANYAN 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing. I believe light doesn't need a medium to travel?
2007-07-06 12:28:40 · answer #7 · answered by Cynthia G 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋