• Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml
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    25 days ago

    That is essentially what I was saying. The observed effect of light (the group velocity of light) travels at the speed of light. That is essentially to say, for everyday purposes like transmission of signals, the speed of light is the (observed) speed of light. In a vacuum, this is c, but in other media, the speed of light is slower than c, so c might be better referred to as the speed of causality.

    Edit: I will mention that some peg c to the speed of light in any medium, and refer to the speed of light in a vacuum as c₀. This usage is endorsed in official SI literature.