What is the speed of darkness?
Do you fear darkness? If yes then you must have nyctophobia and you should know it's capability and its speed, so that you may understand your rival completely. But does darkness has any speed? Does darkness actually travel? These are the questions you must know the answer for so that you can understand what it means when we ask speed of darkness. There are many different answers on the internet regarding speed of darkness but I found none of them satisfactory. So here in this article, we are going to look deep into the darkness, just let's get ready. |
| What is the speed of darkness? |
Now, first of all, let's know what does it mean when we ask for the speed of anything. The speed of an object is the ratio of distance travelled by it divided by the time taken to reach that distance. So if the speed of the object is high then it means that it travels a huge distance in less time and if speed is low then it is opposite i.e. less distance and more time. But one thing that happens due to the speed of the object is the change in its position or location in space relative to one particular point or object. Thus the object actually travels some distance in space and change its location w.r.t particular stationary point due to possessing speed for any length of time .
QUERY: What is the speed of darkness?
 |
| What is the speed of darkness? |
For e.g., if a car starts from point A and travels towards point B located 40Km away from it, travelling with the speed of 40Km/h then after one hour car reaches point B and thus its location got changed.
We would come to the main question of speed of darkness little later, but first, just have a look what other people say about its speed. Now some say that it's equal to the speed of light, some say it's less than the speed of light and others say that it is more than the speed of light. Now let's look at all these individuals.
ALSO READ THIS: Why electricity is transmitted at high voltage?
First, let's take less than the speed of light scenario. For this let's suppose that you are wandering in the garden in daytime and sky is clear and you are casting a shadow on the ground. Now as you are walking so is your shadow. Thus shadow i.e. darkness has a speed equal to your speed which is less than the speed of light.
 |
| What is the speed of darkness? |
Now come to the second possibility i.e. speed equal to light. This is simple to understand. In this scenario when you switch lights off, the darkness spread with speed equal to light. For e.g. let's suppose that at one particular instant the sun just disappears from the sky, then on Earth, we would notice it after 8 minutes as light takes approximately 8 minutes to travel from sun to earth. So darkness would come after 8 minutes and thus this example tells us that darkness hasa speed equal to light's speed.
 |
| What is the speed of darkness? |
Now let's have a look at the third scenario i.e. more than the speed of light proposition. For this let's take one more example. Suppose one night you are flashing a powerful hypothetical torch which can send light up to far far away into space. And you just put your one finger in the path of light such that a part of light just gets obstructed due to your finger. Now suppose this light is reaching a planet's surface far far away in another galaxy. So on that planet, your finger would produce a region of shadow surrounded by light. Now as you move your finger left and right in light's path, the shadow on that far planet would also move at the same instant. But as the planet is far far away so a little degree change here on earth will produce huge linear change over there. Thus the shadow there have to travel a huge distance in a very small interval of time. So this explains more than light's speed scenario.
What is the speed of darkness?
Now at first look, all these propositions seem right but none of them is actually completely right, at least on the issue of speed of darkness. It is because we have misunderstood darkness. You must understand that darkness is not a physical thing or object. Darkness is just the absence of light or photons. So where there is no light there is simply darkness. Thus darkness never travels in space, it just exists always. But to be more specific in the true sense there is nothing like darkness. Darkness is a relative concept. Even completely dark place too have some light but when we look at it with respect to a brighter object, it seems dark. Even black space in our solar space receives lights from everywhere i.e. our sun, nearby stars and even other stars or galaxies far far away. But it appears black because there is no object to reflect light.
 |
| What is the speed of darkness? |
Thus darkness travels no distance in space relative to any fixed object as it always exists everywhere and always in the absence of light. So according to our definition of speed discussed at starting, darkness has no speed as it travels no distance in space. One more definition of speed is this how fast information is transmitted from one point to another. But in this scenario too darkness has no speed as it doesn't transmit any information.
Thus we conclude that darkness has no speed at all as it is something that doesn't possess the property of speed.
We rely on our sense of sight when there is light but on our sense of hearing when it is dark.
Thanks for reading our post What is the speed of darkness? Hope you gain your knowledge about this topic and you learn an interesting topic about the science facts.
This blog everyday science is a place where we offer you fascinating and mind boggling science facts and theories, make you learn deep and complex concepts of science easily and shower you with captivating and astounding knowledge of science you need daily.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon