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The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted c, is a universal physical constant that is exactly equal to 299,792,458 metres per second (approximately 300,000 kilometres per second; 186,000 miles per second; 671 million miles per hour).
By timing the eclipses of Jupiter's moon Io, Rømer estimated that light would take about 22 minutes to travel a distance equal to the diameter of Earth's orbit around the Sun. [1] Using modern orbits, this would imply a speed of light of 226,663 kilometres per second, [2] 24.4% lower than the true value of 299,792 km/s. [3]
To help compare different orders of magnitude, the following list describes various speed levels between approximately 2.2 × 10 −18 m/s and 3.0 × 10 8 m/s (the speed of light). Values in bold are exact.
The speed of light in vacuum is defined to be exactly 299 792 458 m/s (approximately 186,282 miles per second). The fixed value of the speed of light in SI units results from the fact that the metre is now defined in terms of the speed of light. All forms of electromagnetic radiation move at exactly this same speed in vacuum. Different ...
At twice this speed (25.2 rotations per second), it was again visible as it passed through the next notch. At 3 times the speed it was again eclipsed. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Given the rotational speed of the wheel and the distance between the wheel and the mirror, Fizeau was able to calculate a value of 2 × 8633m × 720 × 25.2/s = 313,274,304 m/s for ...
Speed of gravity; Exact values; metres per second: 299 792 458: Approximate values (to three significant digits) kilometres per hour: 1 080 000 000: miles per second: 186 000: miles per hour [1] 671 000 000: astronomical units per day: 173 [Note 1] parsecs per year: 0.307 [Note 2] Approximate light signal travel times; Distance: Time: one foot ...
kilometres per hour (symbol km/h); miles per hour (symbol mi/h or mph); knots (nautical miles per hour, symbol kn or kt); feet per second (symbol fps or ft/s); Mach number (dimensionless), speed divided by the speed of sound; in natural units (dimensionless), speed divided by the speed of light in vacuum (symbol c = 299 792 458 m/s).
The two-way speed of light is the average speed of light from one point, such as a source, to a mirror and back again. Because the light starts and finishes in the same place, only one clock is needed to measure the total time; thus, this speed can be experimentally determined independently of any clock synchronization scheme.