Speed of light the fundamental excitations (or quanta) of the electromagnetic field, called photons. In QED, photons are massless particles and thus, according to special relativity, they travel at the speed of light in vacuum. Extensions of QED in which the photon has a mass have been considered. In such a theory, its speed would depend on its frequency, and the invariant speed "c" of special relativity would then be the upper limit of the speed of light in vacuum. No variation of the speed of light with frequency has been observed in rigorous testing, putting stringent limits on the mass of the
Speed of light This is one of the proposed changes to be incorporated in the next revision of the SI also termed the "New SI". Speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant important in many areas of physics. Its exact value is (approximately ). It is exact because by international agreement a metre is defined to be the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 second. According to special relativity, is the maximum speed at which all conventional matter and hence all known forms of