speed of light

Noun

speed of light (plural speeds of light, abbreviation c)

1. The speed of electromagnetic radiation, which in a perfect vacuum is equivalent to 299,792,458 metres per second.
   • Early physicists developed insightful methods for measuring the speed of light.
   • As the subjective speed of light is raised within the field, objects outside will appear to red-shift, eventually becoming visible only to radio telescope antennae.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: FTL Drive: Appearance Codex entry

   Synonyms:

   lightspeed, light speed, Einstein's constant, Einstein barrier

2. (colloquial, figuratively) A very rapid speed.
   • When her cat figured out that a trip to the vet was in the offing, he took off towards the closet at the speed of light.
3. A rate of travel of a signal equal to one cell per generation, the fastest possible speed in the Moore and von Neumann neighborhoods.
   • In a single generation, a cell can only influence its nearest neighbours, and so the speed of light (by analogy with the speed of light in physics) is the maximum rate at which information can propagate.
   • The translated distance divided by the period is the speed of the spaceship. Since the maximum speed of propagation of a signal in Life is one cell per generation, this speed is known as c (the speed of light). This speed is also the fastest possible growth of any finite object for a finite number...1992 August 14, David I. Bell, “Spaceships in Conway's Life (Part 1)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)