## Speed of Light

$c=\lambda v$

Emmanuel Ogunrinde 3L
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Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:24 am

### Speed of Light

Is speed of light a constant (3*10^8) or does it ever change?

Clarissa Nava 3H
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Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 7:05 am

### Re: Speed of Light clarissa nava 3H

It does not change it will always be 3*10^8

AustinGrove3B
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:23 am

### Re: Speed of Light

more specifically 2.99792 x 108. I think in the book they use this (more sig figs) than 3.0 x 108

Maya_Peterson1C
Posts: 62
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:28 am

### Re: Speed of Light

I did some research behind it, and some sources are claiming that recent studies show light doesn't always travel at the speed proposed by Einstein's theory. However, for the purposes of this class the speed of light is assumed to be constant.

Manya Kidambi 3I
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:24 am

### Re: Speed of Light

You should treat it as a constant in any sort of calculations done for this class. I’m sure for higher level chemistry this would be different, but at this point I wouldn’t worry.

Ruiting Jia 4D
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:27 am

### Re: Speed of Light

AustinGrove3B wrote:more specifically 2.99792 x 108. I think in the book they use this (more sig figs) than 3.0 x 108

Would it be advisable to calculate using 2.99792 x 10^8 on the exams? I'm not sure when to apply significant figures - either throughout the problem or just for the final answer.

404817859
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Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 3:02 am

### Re: Speed of Light

sig figs will give more of an precise answer, either way should work :)

405098546
Posts: 32
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:24 am

### Re: Speed of Light

For the purposes of this class the speed of light probably will always stay the same. Though I think in certain mediums like water or glass the light of speed can change.

Dhwani Krishnan 1G
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:17 am

### Re: Speed of Light

the speed of light changes with the medium, in air it is 3.0x10^8m/s.

Timothy_Yueh_4L
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Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:28 am

### Re: Speed of Light

Just wanted to add that the speed of light is constant throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum (~3.00 * 10^8 m/s)

Diana Sandoval 1K
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### Re: Speed of Light

It's assumed to be a constant and from my knowledge I believe we will be given the constant.

Anjali 4A
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Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:28 am

### Re: Speed of Light

Will we be provided all of these constants/equations during the tests, midterms and final?

Danny Zhang 4L
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Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:26 am

### Re: Speed of Light

Anjali 4A wrote:Will we be provided all of these constants/equations during the tests, midterms and final?

I am sure that we will get a cover sheet with all of the constants/equations as we did on the first test on all future tests as well.

Connie Chen 3D
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Joined: Mon Jan 08, 2018 8:12 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light is a constant, therefore it will never change. You can, however, convert it to other units if you wish, as long as all the correct units cancel out.

Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:18 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light is always constant, and we are provided the value during tests and exams so we can just use whatever value they give us

isarose0
Posts: 62
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:15 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light is constant and will not change, there may be a more specific value, however, it is most commonly known as 3x10^8 m/s

Aleeque Marselian 1A
Posts: 60
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:24 am

### Re: Speed of Light

I'm pretty sure that for this class, we treat the speed of light as a constant all the time.

405098546
Posts: 32
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:24 am

### Re: Speed of Light

Speed of light is constant

davidryan3f
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:23 am

### Re: Speed of Light

light always travels at the same speed regardless of wavelength or amplitude. it is a constant.

Zachary Menz 1D
Posts: 32
Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2018 12:17 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light is constant, and is represented in class as c = 3.00 x 10^8 m/s

Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2019 12:15 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light is constant, it helps maintain the equation c= wavelength x frequency by allowing wavelength and frequency to be inversely related.

Sisi Li 1F
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2019 12:15 am

### Re: Speed of Light

In the context of this class, it should always be treated as a constant.

Shutong Hou_1F
Posts: 117
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2019 12:17 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light is constant in vacuum, and the speed is 3*10^8 m*s^-1, which would also be generally used in solving general problems. However, the speed would actually be a little bit slower when there is air, whereas we generally ignore this difference between the idea and the fact in our calculations for this course.

alexfwang3g
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 12:16 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light is always constant.

Ashley Fang 2G
Posts: 102
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:17 am

### Re: Speed of Light

Speed of light is a constant and will be given during tests/exams.
The link of the constants and equations sheet is on his website but I'll link it here!

https://lavelle.chem.ucla.edu/wp-conten ... ations.pdf

Brandon Tao 1K
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Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2019 12:15 am

### Re: Speed of Light

It does not change, so it is a constant

stephaniekim2K
Posts: 79
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2019 12:16 am

### Re: Speed of Light

3.00 x 10^8 is the speed of light inside a vacuum.

Natalie C 1K
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### Re: Speed of Light

the speed of light is constant ! because it will never change

Rohan Kubba Dis 4B
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Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2019 12:18 am

### Re: Speed of Light

Unless we are not in a vacuum, the speed of light will stay constant at 3.0 x 10^8 m/s.

HuyHa_2H
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2019 12:15 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light won't because it's a constant but sometimes they might be displayed differently due to sig figs and rounding and whatnot.

Posts: 52
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 12:16 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light is a constant as it doesn't change.

Sally Qiu 2E
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Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:18 am

### Re: Speed of Light

the speed of light changes depending on the medium it is traveling through; however, the constant 3.00x10^8 m/s is used when assuming the light is traveling through a vacuum. therefore, in our case, the speed of light is constant.

Rodrigo2J
Posts: 102
Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2019 12:16 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light is a constant so you don't have to worry about it changing.

Emil Velasco 1H
Posts: 96
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:19 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light (3. 10^8 m/s) will always be a constant.

Pablo 1K
Posts: 118
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2019 12:15 am

### Re: Speed of Light

No need to worry for the sake of problems, light constant will not change.

Brian J Cheng 1I
Posts: 115
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 12:15 am

### Re: Speed of Light

For the purpose of this class we'll assume the speed of light (c) to be roughly 3.00 x 10^8 m/s. Light travels at different speeds through different mediums, but we'll use the vacuum measurement for our calculations

Gilberto Millan 1F
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 12:15 am

### Re: Speed of Light

This is also something that I was considering. Using the constant as 2.998*10^8 m/s, the book gives two examples of determining wavelengths on page 5. I was wondering why they didn't give any background information on the constant? But overall the responses were helpful.

Rosa Munoz 2E
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Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2019 12:21 am

### Re: Speed of Light

It is a constant.

705379941
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Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:16 am

### Re: Speed of Light

speed of light is a constant!

Trent Yamamoto 2J
Posts: 111
Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2019 12:18 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light is a constant (3*10^8) and is always reflected as so on the constant sheet.

Amir Bayat
Posts: 115
Joined: Sat Sep 07, 2019 12:16 am

### Re: Speed of Light

The speed of light will not change. It is consistently 3.8 *10^8.

Lara Kristine Bacasen 1L
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### Re: Speed of Light

C is a constant but of course although it is widely accepted this constant assumes particular conditions like how light particles has no resting mass. There is also quantum field theory that argues the vacuum isn't always empty and has elementary particles that pop in and out if existence which can cause changes in the speed of light.