• Question: how fast can light travel ?

    Asked by joshm96 to Anne, Carolyn, Joe, Mariana, Nick on 25 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Joseph Devlin

      Joseph Devlin answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      Pretty darn fast! Takes 8 minutes for the light from the sun to reach the Earth and we orbit at 150,000,000 kms (on average). So I guess it’d be:

      1.5*10^8km / (8 * 60s) ~= 3.125*10^6 km/sec

      or thereabouts

    • Photo: Nick Bradshaw

      Nick Bradshaw answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      About 300 million meters per second in space, very slightly slower through air or water

    • Photo: Carolyn McGettigan

      Carolyn McGettigan answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      According to Wikipedia, light can travel at exactly 299,792,458 metres per second!

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