speed of light and velocity
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speed of light and velocity
I've seen the speed of light equation also be written with velocity in place of c. Are velocity and speed always used interchangeably or is it only for speed of light because light only travels in one direction?
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Re: speed of light and velocity
Velocity is speed with direction, so they cannot be used interchangeably if you need to convey direction or not. The speed of light is a constant and I don't think that you can really determine the direction of light.
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Re: speed of light and velocity
Velocity and speed are often used interchangeably. None of the calculations we make in this class will necessarily require us to know the direction of light, so we just focus on the speed instead.
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Re: speed of light and velocity
in terms of calculations in this class, I believe it doesn't matter. But, it would help a lot in the future to know that they are two different concepts for Physics.
Re: speed of light and velocity
because velocity has a speed of 3 x10^8 m/s, it is often used interchangeably with velocity because some equations need the speed of light. However, the direction of light is not specified with light.
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Re: speed of light and velocity
"c" (speed of light) can never be replaced by "v" (velocity) because "c" is a constant which is known and "v" is a variable which is unknown.
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Re: speed of light and velocity
It is important to remember that speed of light is a constant and velocity is not a constant!
c=3.00x10^8 m/s
Equally important to remember, that speed of light equals wavelength times frequency
c= (lamda)v= 3.00x10^8 m/s
c=3.00x10^8 m/s
Equally important to remember, that speed of light equals wavelength times frequency
c= (lamda)v= 3.00x10^8 m/s
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