Speed of light fibre optic signals which travel 30–40% slower at the speed of light through glass. There are different ways to determine the value of "c". One way is to measure the actual speed at which light waves propagate, which can be done in various astronomical and earth-based setups. However, it is also possible to determine "c" from other physical laws where it appears, for example, by determining the values of the electromagnetic constants "ε" and "μ" and using their relation to "c". Historically, the most accurate results have been obtained by separately determining the frequency and wavelength of a light beam,
Speed of light light as measured directly by Fizeau. The following year Gustav Kirchhoff calculated that an electric signal in a resistanceless wire travels along the wire at this speed. In the early 1860s, Maxwell showed that, according to the theory of electromagnetism he was working on, electromagnetic waves propagate in empty space at a speed equal to the above Weber/Kohlrausch ratio, and drawing attention to the numerical proximity of this value to the speed of light as measured by Fizeau, he proposed that light is in fact an electromagnetic wave. It was thought at the time that empty space was filled with