The Speed of Light: This Visual Shows How Fast (and Also Slow) It Really Is

See how light moves from four different perspectives.
Fabienne Lang

You'll be surprised to learn just how slowly the speed of light can actually be when looked at from different positions. This mind-blowingly cool video shows you exactly that, and it will have you watching it over and over again.

When you think of the speed of light, you imagine an extremely fast, almost imperceptible movement. And you'd be correct in that assumption. In fact, as per what's shown in this cool video, you'll find out that at Earth's surface, the speed of light orbits our planet at 7.5 orbits per second. 

Now, if you take the speed of light and move out to view it as if it were bouncing back and forth between the Earth and the Moon, it's still impressively fast. However, it's now moving 384,400 km in 1.255 seconds. 

The video creator moves further away once again, between Earth, the Moon, and the planet Mars. It now takes three minutes and two seconds for the speed of light to travel the 54.6 million kilometers between Earth and Mars. 

Just watch to see what the final distance entails, and how 'quickly' the speed of light travels in that scenario. Even though it may seem slow for us watching the video, it's still incredibly fast. 

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