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I've read both that the speed of light must remain constant and that light is slowed down the greater the index of refraction. So does the speed of light actually get slower or does space-time warp to accommodate for the constancy of the speed of light?

Qmechanic
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Brödinger
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  • Speed of light gets slower, as far as I know. The velocity c is the maximum attainable speed. – Wrichik Basu Apr 02 '17 at 16:46
  • Possible duplicates: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/466/2451 , http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/11820/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Apr 02 '17 at 17:19

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The speed of light is constant in vacuum. Light is a classical concept, and is composed out of an enormous number of photons, quantum mechancial particles.As light enters a medium the individual photons still travel with the constant velocity c, while having innumerable interactions with the atoms and molecules and lattice of the medium.

In transparent media, the light loses velocity with respect to c just because the interacting photons that build light up have a longer path length due to the multiple interactions. Just the wave front they build up that is the classical light, has a lower velocity.

anna v
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