Speed of Light
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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)
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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.
Re: Speed of Light
Will we be provided all of these constants/equations during the tests, midterms and final?
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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.
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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.
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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
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
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Re: Speed of Light
I'm pretty sure that for this class, we treat the speed of light as a constant all the time.
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Re: Speed of Light
light always travels at the same speed regardless of wavelength or amplitude. it is a constant.
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Re: Speed of Light
The speed of light is constant, and is represented in class as c = 3.00 x 10^8 m/s
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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.
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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.
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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
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
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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.
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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Re: Speed of Light
The speed of light is a constant (3*10^8) and is always reflected as so on the constant sheet.
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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.
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