What is the speed of light? In vacuum it is exactly 299,792,458 meters per second, or about 186,282 miles per second. Since 1983 that number has not been a measurement. It is a definition, and the meter is the thing being defined by it. That reversal is the strangest part of the story. For three … Read more
You cannot stretch a tape measure to a star. You cannot even send a laser pulse and wait, because the light would take years to come back and would be far too faint to detect. So astronomers do something cleverer: they use a chain of methods, each one calibrated by the one before it, extending … Read more
Disclosure: Some links on ScienceBases are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you buy through them. That never changes what we recommend or how we score it — see “How we assessed this” below for the method behind every rating. Every review of the best home weather stations should start with … Read more
Disclosure: Some links on ScienceBases are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you buy through them. That never changes what we recommend or how we score it — see “How we assessed this” below for the method behind every rating. A standard kitchen scale reads in whole grams, and that is … Read more