Since the speed of light stays technically the same and it is only the particles coming in its way that increase the traveling distance, the moment the light waves come out of the water they start travelling at a faster speed. Let’s continue with the same concept mentioned above. But then why does light travel faster when coming out of water? Despite never changing speed, we as an outside observer perceive the light taking more time to cross through the same distance as a difference in speed, rather than what it actually is: the distance has changed. Following the same concept, water is much denser than air or a vacuum, so to make it through any body of water, light waves have to take a much lengthier path. It is the reason why light waves travel fastest through a vacuum. Even the presence of dust particles in the atmosphere can slow down the speed of light. Light travels in waves which means when it travels through objects, it slows down. The light is still moving at the same speed. This means that despite walking at a speed of A mph, the entire time, it took them longer to get out of the full room than the empty room. They keep moving at A, but because of the people, they have to bounce around and take a much more circuitous path to get out of the room. However, if the room is full of people then the actor can’t walk in and out of the room in a straight line. When the room is empty, they can walk into the room and out of it, easily in a straight line. The actor always moves at speed A, no matter what. They travel at a constant speed that we will call A. Imagine a big famous actor walking through a room. Why does light slow down when travelling through water? The obstructions differ between air and water which ends up in the difference of the light speed. ![]() So, let’s say you are standing behind a wall and your friend tells you something, would you be able to hear it as clear as they would have said it right in front of you, without any object in between? Of course not! Drawing a parallel to this concept, it is why light changes speed when entering or exiting a body of water. Similar to sound waves, the time it takes for light to travel also varies according to the object it is travelling through. The denser the medium or the more particles a medium contains, the slower the speed of the light waves. Light waves move at the same speed however, it depends on the barriers coming in the travelling path of the light waves that determine how long it takes for them to travel through any medium. But does that mean light travels at different speeds? The answer is no. But unfortunately, nothing as fast as the travelling of light waves has yet been invented by the human race. If we ever get to travel at the speed of light, we may be able to travel around the Earth 7.5 times in just the blink of an eye. If measured in miles per hour, light travels at a speed of 670, 616, 629 mph. As proven by scientists, light is the fastest thing on the planet Earth.
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