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Tag Archives: speedoflight
What the heck is a light year?
You’ve probably heard the term light year a lot. You likely heard a planet or star described as a certain number of light years away. But what exactly is a light year? And why do we use light to measure time and distance? How fast does it really go? Light moves at approximately 300,000 kilometersContinue reading “What the heck is a light year?” Continue reading
Posted in Class, Light
Tagged astro2110, blog1, speedoflight, Uncategorized
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The Discovery of the Speed of Light
While Aristotle believed that light could travel instantaneously, the first experimental attempt to measure the speed of light came from Galileo Galilei in 1667. He placed two people with covered lights on the top of hills that were about a mile apart. The first person was instructed to uncover his light, and when the second … Continue reading The Discovery of the Speed of Light → Continue reading
Posted in Historical, Light, Observables, Physics
Tagged astro2110, blog1, galileo, speedoflight
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Breaking “c” and the Warping of Space-time
The speed of light, often denoted by the constant “c,” is faster than anything that we know. Although there have been attempts to get certain particles to travel faster than the speed of light, like when scientists at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland tried to get a hold of neutrinos, no one has successfully brokenContinue reading “Breaking “c” and the Warping of Space-time” Continue reading
Posted in Class, Light, Physics, Science, Space Travel
Tagged astro2110, blog4, Einstein, spacecraft, speedoflight
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Traveling at the Speed of Light
Have you ever imagined what it would be like moving at the speed of light? To have the ability to travel that quickly (think ~300,000,000 m/s) would be incomprehensible — you’d experience a host of different effects, including time dilation (how more rapidly moving objects experience time more slowly), relativistic aberration (how your field of … Continue reading Traveling at the Speed of Light → Continue reading
Posted in Class, Light, Space Travel
Tagged astro2110, blog1, relativity, speedoflight
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Putting the speed of light into perspective
The theory of special relativity tells us that there is an absolute speed limit in the universe, that being the speed of light. At a speed of about 300,000 km/s, light takes only one second to travel to the Moon from Earth and eight minutes to travel to the Sun from Earth. This speed is … Continue reading “Putting the speed of light into perspective” Continue reading
Posted in Light, Physics, Space Travel
Tagged Andromeda, astro2110, blog1, relativity, speedoflight
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The Speed of Light
Growing up I had frequently heard the phrase “Faster than the speed of light” but until now, I had no idea what that truly meant. Prior to this class, all I knew was that faster than the speed of light meant FAST, and that all human travel was slow in comparison. In fact, according to… Continue reading The Speed of Light
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The Universal Speed Limit
What if your car was MUCH faster than it is now?
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Posted in Class, Light
Tagged astro2110, blog1, speedoflight
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Traveling at the Speed of Light
Traveling at the speed of light is entirely impossible in this present day and age, and the question of whether or not we will be able to travel at such a high speed or faster is still unanswerable. The speed of light sets the speed limit for the universe, so that should mean that light…
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Posted in Class, Light, Physics, Space Travel
Tagged Alcubierre, astro2110, blog1, Solar System, speedoflight, warpdrive
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Blog 1: Time travel
Last winter break, I saw Interstellar. While various aspects of the movie interested me, the thing that especially stood out was the focus on time and the complexities it holds. Although Interstellar clearly wasn’t completely accurate in its science, it still brought up different aspects of space travel that are legitimate. In my opinion, the […]
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Blog 1: Time travel
Last winter break, I saw Interstellar. While various aspects of the movie interested me, the thing that especially stood out was the focus on time and the complexities it holds. Although Interstellar clearly wasn’t completely accurate in its science, it still brought up different aspects of space travel that are legitimate. In my opinion, the […] Continue reading