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The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998
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Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso
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L
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Light
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1992-09-03
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968b
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Electromagnetic radiation in the visible
range, having a wavelength, from about 400
nanometers in the extreme violet to about 770
nanometers in the extreme red. Light is
considered to exhibit both particle and wave
properties, and the fundamental particle or
quantum of light is called the photon. The
speed of light (and of all electromagnetic
radiation) in a vacuum is approximately
300,000 km/186,000 mi per second, and is a
universal constant denoted by c. Newton was
the first to discover, in 1666, that sunlight
is composed of a mixture of light of
different colours in certain proportions and
that it could be separated into its
components by dispersion. Before his time it
was supposed that dispersion of light
produced colour instead of separating already
existing colours. The speed of light is
allegedly the fastest speed in nature, but in
1971 a jet from the galaxy 3 273 was
calculated as travelling at three times this
speed, which should be impossible.