5 ms·

Just FYI, The circumference of earth is roughly 4 * 10^7 metres, and the speed of light is 3 * 10^8 m/s, so light can actually circle the globe almost 7.5 times

by burke 15y ago

Just FYI, The circumference of earth is roughly 4 * 10^7 metres, and the speed of light is 3 * 10^8 m/s, so light can actually circle the globe almost 7.5 times per second. The depths of the oceans are just a few milliseconds away (40ms -ish?).

code_duck 15y ago
I figured it was something like that. Certainly explains why my ping to London is under 100 ms, right?
- burke 15y ago
  Yup. My Telecommunications prof back in University told us you can approximate the speed of a network as 2c/3, so that sounds right on the button.
mseebach 15y ago
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=depth+of+challenger+deep+in+meters http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=depth+of+challenger+dee... http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+for+light+to+travel+11000+meters http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+for+light+to+trave... 40 µs, not ms. (off topic.. can anyone get wolfram alpha to answer that in one query?)
- andyn 15y ago
  "Depth of Challenger Deep in light seconds"
- burke 15y ago
  I was going for the distance from some arbitrary spot in North America to some arbitrary spot way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where I'd assume the ocean is at its deepest, but this is interesting too.