Value of Speed of Light** (Shoutout to Dr. Lavelle for calling me out in lecture today) [ENDORSED]

[Jennifer Ma 1G]

In lecture on Monday, Dr. Lavelle briefly introduced the equation that frequency x wavelength = speed of light. What is the value of speed of light? I googled it, and it spit back 299,792,458 m/s. Do we use this insanely large value, or do we use scientific notation of this value? Is the latter, what is the scientific notation we use for the speed of light?

[nicolesalcedo]

I think it's preferred to use the scientific notation for the speed of light when making calculations. It's 3.00*10^8m/s

[Jacob Samuels 1E]

You could use 2.99 but it's just easier to use 3.00 because it's simpler

[Sam Metzger 1C]

Exactly. It's also important to note that this value is the speed of light in a vacuum. We'll probably be able to use this value for all our calculations but it would be a different number in another medium.

[Or Fisher 1I]

Ya, the value used in the solution manual was 2.998*10^8, but in class we were using the rounded 3.00*10^8.