Speed of light: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:46, 24 July 2012

Definition

The Speed of Light (or c) is the speed at which a photon (an "energy packet" of electromagnetic radiation) travels in a vacuum.

Values

The exact measurement for the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second, in the following values, the speed of light will use values based on the rounded 300,000,000 m/s.

Meters per second:

c = 3 \times 1 0^{8} m s^{- 1}

Kilometers per second:

c = 3 \times 1 0^{5} k m s^{- 1}

Miles per second:

c = 1.9 \times 1 0^{5} m i s^{- 1}

Consequences of the Speed of Light

You are going to have to sacrifice scale on some level.Either you will have an etmerxely huge sun, or a miniscule Mercury.You will also have quite a problem wiht the distance scale Here are the scales:Distances (in AU)Sun = 0Mercury = 0.39Venus = 0.72Earth = 1.00Mars = 1.52Jupiter = 5.20Saturn = 9.58Uranus = 19.23Neptune = 30.04Sizes (earth idameter)Me = 0.382V = 0.949E = 1.000Ma = 0.532J= 11.209S= 9.449U = 4.007N = 3.883So, you will need candy that will vary in size from 4/10 (in diameter) the size of whatever you use as the earth, to 11x larger.If you used an M&M for earth, picture putting 11 of them side by side for the equivalent of Jupiter and then think about cutting that M&M in half (actually a little less, closer to 1/3) for the size of Mercury.

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 ==Consequences of the Speed of Light==
-===Communication===
+You are going to have to sacrifice scale on some level.Either you will have an etmerxely huge sun, or a miniscule Mercury.You will also have quite a problem wiht the distance scale   Here are the scales:Distances (in AU)Sun = 0Mercury = 0.39Venus = 0.72Earth = 1.00Mars = 1.52Jupiter = 5.20Saturn = 9.58Uranus = 19.23Neptune = 30.04Sizes (earth idameter)Me = 0.382V = 0.949E = 1.000Ma = 0.532J= 11.209S= 9.449U = 4.007N = 3.883So, you will need candy that will vary in size from 4/10 (in diameter) the size of whatever you use as the earth, to 11x larger.If you used an M&M for earth, picture putting 11 of them side by side   for the equivalent of Jupiter   and then think about cutting that M&M in half (actually a little less, closer to 1/3) for the size of Mercury.
-[[Humans]] have discovered methods to communicate over great distances using electromagnetic (EM) radiation, such as radio waves and lasers. On Earth, distances are short enough that these methods seem instantaneous. On [[Mars]] and other parts of the [[solar system]], communication with Earth involves a time delay, based on the time it takes the EM radiation to travel. The delay between Earth and Mars varies from 3 minutes to 22 minutes (between about 180 to 1340 seconds depending on the postition of planets and resulting distance). For two way comunication (request - answer) time is doubled.
-To provide uninterupted communications, a group of communication sattelites will be necessary (placed in the orbit around the sun) - due different orbital speeds of both planets, for a period of time sun will be possitioned directly between both planets, blocking dirrect communications.
 ==See also==