Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert Heather

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Tom Whiting wrote at 2007-07-15 03:28:25
Heather is correct...there is no such thing as the

speed of "sight" because in our retina's are only

receptors (light receivers) and not light transmitters.

Since we only receive light, there is only the speed

of the incoming photons, about 186,000 miles per

second...the speed of light in a vacuum.

Clear skies.

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Pat O. wrote at 2009-09-01 20:07:24
Senses, such as sight, don't "reach out" to the source, they receive in-coming signals.  Light created from a flashlight 186,000 miles away, will reach our eyes in 1 second.  So the fastest time we will sense the light will be about 1 second after the light is turned on, if it is that far away.  Note - it takes time for the signal to go through our circuits, reach our brain, etc. But it is still in the 1 and a fraction of a second range by the time we "see" the light or object.



With objects, the light comes from the object in almost the same exact way as a flashlight (the object doesn't create the light usually), light comes from a source, hits the object, then reflects into our eyes and all over the place.  But this works the same way as a flashlight.

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chuck wrote at 2009-11-12 15:52:56
Speed of light is 186000 miles a second and Our sun is 98 million miles away and we see the sun instantly but it takes 8+ minutes for the sunlight to reach the earth so i believe speed of sight is much faster than light please comment.

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vicky sareen wrote at 2010-07-24 10:29:51
It takes 8 minutes for sun light to reach the earth but if we are standing in front of the sun with our eyes closed , the second we open our eyes we see the sun ,similarly the stars as they are so many light years away from us but we see them the second we look up the sky.Hence sight is faster than light.

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