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The speed of light is... slooooooow
Imgur ^

Posted on 11/02/2015 11:04:54 PM PST by LibWhacker



TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: light; speed; stringtheory
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To: aquila48
"But if you were traveling on a beam of light, distances would be shrunk to zero, and time would stand still. (According to the Theory of Relativity) Which means that you would be everywhere instantaneously. Or light is everywhere instantaneously. In that case the speed of light is infinite and the Universe is reduced to a point."

Not being a physicist nor playing one on TV, I have a problem with the whole Relativity time shift. Reading a lot of sci-fi in my youth from the masters, I still can't comprehend how moving away from Earth at light speed would result in the spacecraft having a different time differential to the Earth.

I don't believe time is an actual dimension, but a concept devised by humans on their white board math calculations. All the black hole and worm hole theories of bending time and space are just that - theories.

Not trying to be a flat-worlder, but no one has proven what a black hole is. If it's a imploded star that has so much gravity and won't allow light to escape, how can they even suppose what's beyond the Event Horizon? Movies like the recent, "Interstellar" tried in a convoluted way to make sense of black hole and how they could travel from one galaxy to the next. The premise was that humankind had learned in the far future that gravity is another dimension and created the black hole for mankind. Good movie, but non-sensical.

So I ask all the theory physicists what is time? Is it real or just a figment of human imagination? And if real, why can't space/time be bent to allow for travel backwards, which has never been the case or we would have seen it in our time? The movie above tried to explain it, but it was a movie.

21 posted on 11/03/2015 1:06:58 AM PST by A Navy Vet (An Oath is Forever)
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To: aquila48
"But if you were traveling on a beam of light, distances would be shrunk to zero, and time would stand still. (According to the Theory of Relativity) Which means that you would be everywhere instantaneously. Or light is everywhere instantaneously. In that case the speed of light is infinite and the Universe is reduced to a point."

Not being a physicist nor playing one on TV, I have a problem with the whole Relativity time shift. Reading a lot of sci-fi in my youth from the masters, I still can't comprehend how moving away from Earth at light speed would result in the spacecraft having a different time differential to the Earth.

I don't believe time is an actual dimension, but a concept devised by humans on their white board math calculations. All the black hole and worm hole theories of bending time and space are just that - theories.

Not trying to be a flat-worlder, but no one has proven what a black hole is. If it's a imploded star that has so much gravity and won't allow light to escape, how can they even suppose what's beyond the Event Horizon? Movies like the recent, "Interstellar" tried in a convoluted way to make sense of black hole and how they could travel from one galaxy to the next. The premise was that humankind had learned in the far future that gravity is another dimension and created the black hole for mankind. Good movie, but non-sensical.

So I ask all the theory physicists what is time? Is it real or just a figment of human imagination? And if real, why can't space/time be bent to allow for travel backwards, which has never been the case or we would have seen it in our time? The movie above tried to explain it, but it was a movie.

22 posted on 11/03/2015 1:07:01 AM PST by A Navy Vet (An Oath is Forever)
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To: A Navy Vet
-- So I ask all the theory physicists what is time? Is it real or just a figment of human imagination? And if real, why can't space/time be bent to allow for travel backwards, which has never been the case or we would have seen it in our time? --

You can ask those questions again!

Physicists (I'm not one) don't know what time is, for sure; but are sure time is not "everywhere the same." For example, the notion of "at the same time" is relative to observers. What one observer views as events occurring at the same time, another observer will see as one before the other, and a third observer will see the other before the one.

Time is real enough, but it just isn't what we intuitively think of it as. It would exist even if humans didn't.

"Travel backwards" can be thought of as a relative term too. In the two twins paradox, the twin that traveled and returned has aged little. From the perspective of the stationary twin, the traveling twin has traveled backward in time, even though neither twin experienced any reversal of time.

But why literal "travel backward in time," although theoretically possible at a particle level (nuclear reactions have no time arrow, and are valid in both directions), is not observed, I know of no explanation "why." Just that the result of aggregation of all these time arrows is "in a closed system, entropy or disorder must increase."

23 posted on 11/03/2015 2:07:07 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: LibWhacker

Cool!


24 posted on 11/03/2015 2:16:14 AM PST by Techster
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To: LibWhacker

186,000 mph


25 posted on 11/03/2015 2:18:41 AM PST by exnavy (good gun control: two hands, one shot, one kill.)
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To: LibWhacker

I c.


26 posted on 11/03/2015 3:04:15 AM PST by Moltke
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To: LibWhacker

The Decreasing Speed of Light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdTlOVTDbNU


27 posted on 11/03/2015 3:22:03 AM PST by Mechanicos (Nothing's so small it can't be blown out of proportion.)
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To: LibWhacker

If something is approaching at the speed of light, we should see it coming. So why can’t we see light coming? < ducks>


28 posted on 11/03/2015 3:33:07 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Men need a reason to shop. Women need a place.)
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To: Crazieman

The cost of launching garbage into the sun would be about the same as the price of gold, per ton. Sounds like a non-starter.


29 posted on 11/03/2015 3:37:29 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Men need a reason to shop. Women need a place.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

You’re looking at it rationally. The response I’m looking for is people that think the idea will affect the sun.


30 posted on 11/03/2015 3:46:17 AM PST by Crazieman (Article V or National Divorce. The only solutions now.)
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To: Crazieman
Anyone else see my objection?

Common sense is that set of prejudices we acquire before age 18. - Attributed to Albert Einstein.

I'm not quite sure I understand your objection, I think you do not accept the results of special relativity, whatever you understand them to be. The problem with your "objection" is that it clearly contradicts observations. Relativity has withstood every test thrown at it and bounced back stronger than ever. GPS systems are engineered to accommodate both General and Special relativity and works better than its designers could have hoped. See this article for the results of a famous test of the predictions of relativity theory concerning time.

31 posted on 11/03/2015 3:46:50 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Men need a reason to shop. Women need a place.)
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To: exnavy

186,000 mph, it’s not just a good idea, it’s the law.


32 posted on 11/03/2015 3:50:35 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Men need a reason to shop. Women need a place.)
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To: FredZarguna
"If not instantaneous, [the speed of light] is extraordinarily rapid."

Actually, the speed of light is ordinarily rapid.

33 posted on 11/03/2015 3:53:38 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Men need a reason to shop. Women need a place.)
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To: LibWhacker

34 posted on 11/03/2015 3:58:56 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: aquila48

The assertions in your post completely misrepresent the results of special relativity. Other than that it’s fine. Of course, history is on your side. The complete and utter failure of that expensive and misguided effort by the Americans to build a nuclear bomb in the deserts of New Mexico during the Second World War put paid to this relativity nonsense once and for all. Einstein died penniless, friendless and alone in New York shortly afterwards, regarded as one of the greatest frauds in history.


35 posted on 11/03/2015 3:59:55 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Men need a reason to shop. Women need a place.)
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To: LibWhacker

Traveling at the speed of light a spaceship hitting something as small as a grain of rice would cause an explosion of nuclear magnitude.


36 posted on 11/03/2015 4:01:23 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: LibWhacker
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
37 posted on 11/03/2015 4:18:52 AM PST by Mrs_Puddleglum (First God. Then family. Then country.)
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To: Graybeard58

There once was a swordsman named Fisk
Whose lunge was exceedingly brisk.
So swift was the action
The Fitzgerald contraction
Reduced his rapier to a disc.

That’s the clean version.


38 posted on 11/03/2015 4:21:11 AM PST by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: LibWhacker

It’s all relative...


39 posted on 11/03/2015 4:39:18 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets; exnavy

186,000 miles per second, not miles per hour.


40 posted on 11/03/2015 5:05:32 AM PST by HartleyMBaldwin
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