Talk:Speed of light

1. REDIRECT Template:Archives

Why not also include an accurate description of c in miles per second?

186282.3970512 mi/s, to be fairly accurate.
as of 22 February 2024

<in imperial units, the speed of light is approximately 186282 miles per second>

87.211.116.227 (talk) 08:35, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

Speed of light in literature

I think there needs to be a section about speed of light in popular culture somewhere, namely the teleportation gimmick used areas like in Star Wars and Kingdom Hearts. The disambiguation mentions a few examples but not this article. Jordf32123 (talk) 00:00, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

We already have a page on Teleportation and one on Teleportation in fiction and on warp drive. Johnjbarton (talk) 01:32, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

A fairly well-known old science-fiction story where the speed of light plays a prominent role is "The Xi Effect" by Philip Latham. The speed of light actually remains the same, but other things change, resulting in the doom of the universe... AnonMoos (talk) 07:41, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

R. Lewontin (1996) in https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Speed_of_light#M_-_R

87.211.116.227 (talk) 05:36, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

c for celeritas? Citation needed, but not Isaac Azimov

There doesn't seem to be any evidence that the symbol c for the speed of light was chosen because of the Latin word celeritas. Isaac Azimov gets credit for starting this rumor in a 1959 article entitled "c for celeritas", but he provided no historical evidence or further explanation. A search on Google Scholar or Google Books from 1800–1958 comes up negative. This doesn't appear to be a thing. 2603:7000:9501:3A00:51AB:5E91:97E:83D4 (talk) 04:00, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

The article now has several refs concerning the name and I altered the text to be clearer that the issue is unclear. Johnjbarton (talk) 17:26, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

Hello all,

ac·celera<n>t(e(d/s))(ing/ion)or Particle

Etymology

borrowed from Latin ac·celerātus, past participle of ac·celerāre "to add speed to, hasten the occurrence of, go quickly," from ad- ad- + celerāre "to hasten," verbal derivative of celer "swift, speedy,"

Did you know?

Celerity hasn’t acted with much expressive celerity since its entry into English in the 1400s: it refers now as it did centuries ago to swiftness of motion or action. Its source (by way of Middle French) is the Latin adjective celer (“swift” or “speedy”), a word from which we also get ac·celerate,

Etymology

Middle English celerite, borrowed from Anglo-French celeritee, borrowed from Latin celeritāt-, celeritās from celer "swift, speedy" + -itāt-, -itās -ity — more at Ac·celerate

celeritous adj.: (ce·​ler·​i·​tous sə̇ˈlerətəs) swift-moving

altius citius fortius, adv. cito promptly

87.211.116.227 (talk) 19:14, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

That's fine, but unrelated to the question about the use of the letter 'c'. Johnjbarton (talk) 19:22, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

1/(LC)½

Telegrapher's_equations#Lossless_transmission

is the propagation speed of waves traveling through the transmission line. For transmission lines made of parallel perfect conductors with vacuum between them, this speed is equal to the speed of light.

87.211.116.227 (talk) 21:51, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

Conventional matter can't travel at the speed o f light

According to the special theory of relativity, c is the upper limit for the speed at which conventional matter,... 86.126.173.182 (talk) 07:43, 16 April 2025 (UTC)