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Author Topic:   Speed of Light Barrier
Creation Guy
Junior Member (Idle past 5332 days)
Posts: 16
From: NJ
Joined: 08-15-2009


Message 138 of 178 (519647)
08-15-2009 8:28 PM
Reply to: Message 40 by JustinC
07-18-2005 4:30 PM


Re: Why 3x10^8m/s?
Speed of light barrier? First you are making the assumption that the speed of light is a constant - which it is not.
Constant cannot be sped up or slowed down under any condition. For this reason the speed of sound is not constant as it travels faster or slower dependent on the medium through which it travels. Even that air temp. can affect sound speed.
Researchers have been able to slow light to 38 mph
Physicists Slow Speed of Light – Harvard Gazette
I would now submit that the speed of light is not a constant.
What I do know of propulsion that the faster you go the more energy it takes and the consumption of energy is not linear. I do not think all the available universal energy could make a single shuttle craft move beyond the speed of light (which I will leave at the semi-constant of 3x10^8m/s).
Furthermore if you wanted to be in such a craft and make it a livable 4G factors - it would take you hundreds of years to accelerate to anywhere near 90%SOL. And if you hit some dust along the way it would shear your little ship to bits.
I assume you are trying to breech the SOL for travel purposes?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 40 by JustinC, posted 07-18-2005 4:30 PM JustinC has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 139 by Taz, posted 08-15-2009 9:09 PM Creation Guy has replied
 Message 145 by kbertsche, posted 08-16-2009 1:26 AM Creation Guy has not replied

  
Creation Guy
Junior Member (Idle past 5332 days)
Posts: 16
From: NJ
Joined: 08-15-2009


Message 140 of 178 (519655)
08-15-2009 9:23 PM
Reply to: Message 139 by Taz
08-15-2009 9:09 PM


Re: Why 3x10^8m/s?
So it remains A constant, but if it is presented with obstacles it can be slowed? This is intriguing because Harvard was not the first or the last university to put the brakes on light.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.../01/18/AR2007011801683.html
What I am saying that in order to have a universal constant - it needs to be universally consistent. If not, then webster needs to redefine what a constant is.
Again I am sensing this glass case that the speed of light being constant theory is now attached to evolutionary theory. Because if it is not constant then the light year is all jazzed up. We have no idea how fast light could move in the clear intergallactic space or even in interstellar space or interplanetary space.
I would surmise that light travels slower the more junk it has to slide through. Since it is both a wave and a particle. It should move faster as it moves into less crowded areas of space.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 139 by Taz, posted 08-15-2009 9:09 PM Taz has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 141 by DevilsAdvocate, posted 08-15-2009 10:27 PM Creation Guy has not replied
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Creation Guy
Junior Member (Idle past 5332 days)
Posts: 16
From: NJ
Joined: 08-15-2009


Message 151 of 178 (520599)
08-22-2009 12:38 PM
Reply to: Message 148 by Taz
08-16-2009 1:03 PM


Re: Why 3x10^8m/s?
Space is a medium. Even if it is a very rare medium. What I am saying is that as the medium thins out in the distance between planets and thins further at the distance between stars and thins most at the distances between galaxies - that it seem reasonable that the speed of light would increase as the medium thins.
There is no such thing as complete space. Everything has something in it. Even in space there is a few hundred hydrogen atoms per cubic centimeters.
I would propose that as the medium thins the speed of light increases. This can be confirmed by the inverse in that a thicker a medium is the more you can slow light.
I would imagine no one is working on that particular equation. The speed of light is not constant and does not have a universal barrier. Nor does sound for that matter - it has a barrier at a certain temp., pressure, and is all dependent on the medium. As is light.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 148 by Taz, posted 08-16-2009 1:03 PM Taz has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 152 by Taz, posted 08-22-2009 12:54 PM Creation Guy has not replied
 Message 153 by kbertsche, posted 08-22-2009 3:06 PM Creation Guy has replied

  
Creation Guy
Junior Member (Idle past 5332 days)
Posts: 16
From: NJ
Joined: 08-15-2009


Message 154 of 178 (520610)
08-22-2009 3:13 PM
Reply to: Message 153 by kbertsche
08-22-2009 3:06 PM


Re: Why 3x10^8m/s?
I did not state light needed a medium to travel. I stated that we know that its speed is dependant on the density of the medium it travels through.
The less dense the medium the faster the speed.
If light can travel 100s of km without touching anything in space. And with only a couple hundred atoms per cubic centimeter that might could happen. Math could find the liklihood of this if you had the time and wanted to find how many hydrogen atoms can fit into a cubic centimeter ran against how many cm light has to travel. You could come up with the percentage risk for impact through space for photons.
If you really wanted to do some math you could inversely figure how much light could be sped up by a entirely rare medium. Absolute space with zero interference. If we know how to slow it down - we also know what could be done to speed it up.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 153 by kbertsche, posted 08-22-2009 3:06 PM kbertsche has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 155 by kbertsche, posted 08-22-2009 3:19 PM Creation Guy has replied

  
Creation Guy
Junior Member (Idle past 5332 days)
Posts: 16
From: NJ
Joined: 08-15-2009


Message 156 of 178 (520616)
08-22-2009 3:45 PM
Reply to: Message 155 by kbertsche
08-22-2009 3:19 PM


Re: Why 3x10^8m/s?
You guys are smart. Where was the speed of light clocked at? How was it clocked?
No medium and traveling a couple hundred kilometers before interacting is different. The question then becomes - how long does each interaction take? Does it immediatly re-accelerate? How can these answers be known?
Let us say that light from the sun only has to interact once every 250km with interplanetary gas. That is still 372,000 interactions along the way.

This message is a reply to:
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Replies to this message:
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