gcsescience.com                                             17                                             gcsescience.com

Waves

Light - General.

Light is a transverse wave.
It is one part (region) of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Light is the visible region, it is the part used by our eyes to see.
Like any electromagnetic wave, light can travel through a vacuum.
Light travels through the vacuum of space from the Sun to the Earth.

Light travels very quickly. There is nothing which can travel faster.
The speed of light is 300,000,000 m/s in air
(that is 300 million metres per second - not easy to imagine!).
The speed of sound in air is approximately 330 m/s,
so light is almost one million times as fast.

You can sometimes notice that light is traveling faster than sound.
If you watch a cricket match,
you can see the batsman hit the ball before you hear the sound.
The light has traveled to your eyes
more quickly than the sound has traveled to your ears.

back      Headings      Waves      Search      Questions      next

gcsescience.com              Contents             Index              Quizzes             gcsescience.com

Copyright © 2008 Dr. Colin France. All Rights Reserved.