The speed of light is approximately 300,000 kilometers per second, Did you know electrons that give use electricity also travel very close to this speed. The information travelling on the internet also travels close to this speed. The information or modulated electrons, travel somewhere around 60% of the speed of light in most conductors.
WiFi signals, which travel mostly through the air, travel much closer to the speed of light than electrons moving through copper wire. These signals can travel at the maximum recorded speed of light in a vacuum, which is approximately 185,000 miles per second.
Certain calculations show that electrons can travel through a conductor at 90 % of the speed of light. Imagine how fast these particles could travel in a vacuum. To get them to travel faster you need to apply a lot more energy. This is because the electron gets a lot more heavier, as they reach the speed of light. However light moves at 186,000 miles per second in outer space. Outer space is considered to be in a vacuum. So maybe light waves are slowed down by friction. Your sun glasses are able to block UV light waves. In fact many scientists believe it takes certain types of radiation millions of years to escape the center of the sun after millions of nuclear reactions.
The speed at which travels is very dependent on the medium it moving through. Consider there are materials that light cannot move through. Light can never go through lead or various types of metal. The light particle or waves, try to penetrate these materials. However they only hit the outer surface and become kinetic energy. This means they warm up the surface of these materials and dissipate into nothing. Maybe they become potential energy. The laws of thermodynamics would indicate this. The first law of thermodynamics is known as the law of conservation. This law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed in a contained or isolated system. The second law of thermodynamics puts an interesting twist on the first law. The second law states that the entropy of any contained or isolated system always increases.
The speed of light is measured to be 186,000 miles per second. The distance that information travels on the internet is thousands of miles in seconds. In fact the time it takes to receive information is in an instant. Of course there are various devices that slow the process down such as routers and various types of switches. However the process that slows down this method of information travel is how fast humans make decisions and are able to input their ideas into the internet. Human ideas can make the internet a good way of changing the world. However the internet can also be a method transmitting evil ideas.
Best Regards.
Paul Luciw
