Tuesday, November 5, 2024
12.6 C
New York

Understanding the Speed of Light, How Much do We Know?

You might not think there’s much to know about the speed of light, but you’d be wrong. The actual speed of light in a vacuum is 299,792 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second), which may sound ridiculously fast to us, but in the grand scheme of the Universe, it’s quite slow. To give you an idea, if you were traveling at the speed of light, it would take you just 45 minutes to get to Jupiter from the Sun. According to Einstein and his special theory of relativity, times gets slower the closer you get to the speed of light, stops when you reach the speed of light and would go backward if you were to exceed the speed of light.


Some physicists argue that there may be another factor to consider that may influence the speed of light, and that’s quantum vacuum fluctuation. This theory proposes that what we think are empty pockets of the Universe, aren’t actually empty and that they’re packed with particles instead, and these particles are constantly alternating from existent to non-existent states. This quantum fluctuation could quite easily slow down the speed of light.


But, this is still just a theory remember and still a very controversial one at that. And still, we have no answer to the most simple of questions: what of the speed of light is something different than we proposed? Could it be infinite? Although that would solve many of our problems, if that were true, then nothing would exist, so I guess it’s back to the drawing board with that one.



More News to Read

Hot this week

Brooklyn Defendants Charged in Rideshare Hacking Scheme: Jailbroken Phones Used to Exploit Uber

Brooklyn federal court has charged two defendants, Eliahou Paldiel...

Detecting Defects in Next-Generation Computer Chips: The Future of TMD-Based Semiconductors

As technology advances, the demand for smaller, more powerful...

Merging Galaxies in the Early Universe: The Birth of a Monster Galaxy

Astronomers have recently observed a fascinating event in the...

Topics

Brooklyn Defendants Charged in Rideshare Hacking Scheme: Jailbroken Phones Used to Exploit Uber

Brooklyn federal court has charged two defendants, Eliahou Paldiel...

Detecting Defects in Next-Generation Computer Chips: The Future of TMD-Based Semiconductors

As technology advances, the demand for smaller, more powerful...

Merging Galaxies in the Early Universe: The Birth of a Monster Galaxy

Astronomers have recently observed a fascinating event in the...

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope to Uncover Galactic Fossils and Dark Matter Mysteries

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope is set to transform our...

Black Myth: Wukong – A Game that Gamers Love Despite Media Backlash

In a gaming industry increasingly influenced by social agendas,...

Gravitational Waves Reveal a ‘Supercool’ Secret About the Big Bang

In 2023, physicists made a groundbreaking discovery that could...

Related Articles

Popular Categories

Send this to a friend