Asked by violet

Which are characteristics of the speed of light? Check all that apply.

The speed of light is the speed all waves travel.
The speed of light is the speed electromagnetic waves travel.
The speed of light is 3.0 x 108 m/s in space.
The speed of light is the same in all matter.
The speed of higher frequency light slows down more than lower frequency light in matter.

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Answers: 2, 3 and 5 are correct.

- The speed of light is the speed all waves travel. — False. Different types of waves (sound, water, seismic, etc.) travel at different speeds.
- The speed of light is the speed electromagnetic waves travel. — True (meaning electromagnetic waves in vacuum travel at c).
- The speed of light is 3.0 x 10^8 m/s in space. — True (c ≈ 2.998×10^8 m/s, commonly rounded to 3.0×10^8 m/s).
- The speed of light is the same in all matter. — False. Light slows by different amounts in different materials (depends on the material’s refractive index).
- The speed of higher frequency light slows down more than lower frequency light in matter. — True in normal dispersion (e.g., blue light is slowed more than red in glass), though there are exceptions (anomalous dispersion near resonances).