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Special relativity. 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).
The speed of light in vacuum is defined to be exactly 299 792 458 m/s (approx. 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.
is the speed of light (i.e. phase velocity) in a medium with permeability μ, and permittivity ε, and ∇ 2 is the Laplace operator. In a vacuum, v ph = c 0 = 299 792 458 m/s, a fundamental physical constant. [1] The electromagnetic wave equation derives from Maxwell's equations.
While the speed of light in vacuum is a universal constant (c = 299,792,458 m/s), the speed in a material may be significantly less, as it is perceived to be slowed by the medium. For example, in water it is only 0.75 c.
The value of ε 0 is defined by the formula [3] = where c is the defined value for the speed of light in classical vacuum in SI units, [4]: 127 and μ 0 is the parameter that international standards organizations refer to as the magnetic constant (also called vacuum permeability or the permeability of free space).
In the context of this article, "faster-than-light" means the transmission of information or matter faster than c, a constant equal to the speed of light in vacuum, which is 299,792,458 m/s (by definition of the metre) [ 3] or about 186,282.397 miles per second. This is not quite the same as traveling faster than light, since:
The absolute refractive index n of an optical medium is defined as the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum, c = 299 792 458 m/s, and the phase velocity v of light in the medium, =. Since c is constant, n is inversely proportional to v : n ∝ 1 v . {\displaystyle n\propto {\frac {1}{v}}.}
The impedance of free space (that is, the wave impedance of a plane wave in free space) is equal to the product of the vacuum permeability μ 0 and the speed of light in vacuum c 0. Before 2019, the values of both these constants were taken to be exact (they were given in the definitions of the ampere and the metre respectively), and the value ...