Today 31 years ago the speed of light was set to 299,792.458 km/s. It happened in the 17th edition of the “General Conference on Weights and Measures” on October 21, 1983.
EPIC – The European Photonics Industry Consortium – sets today as the first commemoration of that event, framed by the coming International Year of Light, 2015. Learn more about this initiative here.
We encourage all of you to think about how many things you have around right now that are enabled by the power of light. First of all, you wouldn’t be reading these words in this particular format!
Cheers to light!
Optica and SPIE Student Chapter at the University of California, Irvine