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New Research Shows the Speed of Light is Variable in Real Space
Cleveland Leader ^ | March 25, 2013 1:33pm | Julie Kent

Posted on 03/25/2013 11:27:40 AM PDT by Olog-hai

Two new studies to be published in the European Physical Journal D demonstrate that the speed of light is variable in real space.

Textbook explanations of the speed of light assume that light travels in a vacuum, but space is not a vacuum. …

It is not expected that the small variation in the speed of light which has been found will affect the universally accepted theories of particle physics and quantum mechanics to a large extent.

However, the studies are proof that the speed of light may be variable, and shows that the mathematical treatments that have long been used should be revised to include the speed of light as variable and not a constant in real space. …

(Excerpt) Read more at clevelandleader.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: fasterthanlight; haltonarp; quantummechanics; realspace; speedoflight; stringtheory; vacuumpermeability; warpspeed
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1 posted on 03/25/2013 11:27:40 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

Misleading headline alert

This is not new, we were taught this 30 years ago.


2 posted on 03/25/2013 11:31:29 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Olog-hai

Another old theory found again. People are desperate to find a way to make interstellar travel seem possible.


3 posted on 03/25/2013 11:39:03 AM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Olog-hai

Just the other day I was driving in the desert at night and I kept outrunning my headlights. Here I thought I was nuts but now I know why.


4 posted on 03/25/2013 11:44:31 AM PDT by Cyman
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To: Olog-hai
I found the following from another article. I'm guessing, but I think the novelty of this claim is that there is a finite number of virtual particles in a given chunk of vacuum.
In one of the new studies, researchers established a detailed quantum mechanism that would explain the magnetization and polarization of the vacuum, referred to as vacuum permeability and permittivity, and the finite speed of light. It suggests that there exist a limited number of ephemeral particles per unit volume in a vacuum

5 posted on 03/25/2013 11:45:17 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Olog-hai
...the studies are proof that the speed of light may be variable...

If they were proof, then there wouldn't be a "may" involved. Perhaps the author meant "evidence" or "suggestive".

6 posted on 03/25/2013 11:45:34 AM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: driftdiver
Is this the same idea of the speed of light slowing down because of matter? For example the speed of light in air being slower than the speed of light in a vacuum?

Or is this an attempt to confirm and measure the idea that virtual particle/anti-particle pairs are constantly being created and destroyed even in a vacuum?

7 posted on 03/25/2013 11:48:51 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (Choose one: the yellow and black flag of the Tea Party or the white flag of the Republican Party.)
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To: Olog-hai
It is not expected that the small variation in the speed of light which has been found....

Old news really about the small variations, but one wonders if there may be larger variations under some circumstances and in different regions of space..............Just wondering.

8 posted on 03/25/2013 11:51:15 AM PDT by The Cajun (Sarah Palin, Mark Levin......Nuff said.)
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To: Olog-hai
n=c/v, where c is the speed of light in vacuum and v is the speed of light in a given substance. The refractive index.
9 posted on 03/25/2013 12:04:55 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: Olog-hai

It is well established that the speed of light is slower in a neutral plasma than in a vacuum. In the ionosphere (an example of a neutral plasma) the effect is proportional to the square of wavelength and something like the squareroot of the charge divided by the mass of the electron. The positive ions, being so much more massive have little effect. See: http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/315/Waves/node48.html for details and equations 593 and 596 for the exact equations.

This paper seems to be saying that the presence of short lived quantum mechanical virtual particles delays the speed of light in a vacuum (plausible) but the delay is independent of the mass of the particles. Not enough details are supplied to evaluate the claim.


10 posted on 03/25/2013 12:06:37 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (What word begins with "O" and ends in economic collapse?)
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To: betty boop; Alamo-Girl

Pinging my favorite cosmologists. In the past, we have had some discussions where I posited that the speed of light is not really a constant.


11 posted on 03/25/2013 12:36:31 PM PDT by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: Olog-hai; SunkenCiv; All
Ultra high-speed camera catches light waves rebounding

Pretty damn cool.

12 posted on 03/25/2013 1:13:20 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: ozzymandus

The libtard-educated techies can only regurgitate what was taught decades ago, which will fool the new strain of libtard voters and leaders. It’s perfect! These guys are good. When the listeners are stupid, they’d never know anyway. Recycle the knowledge with a liberal twist.


13 posted on 03/25/2013 1:17:42 PM PDT by SgtHooper (The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.)
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To: Olog-hai

To quote the late Zaven Margosian:

“Constants aren’t,
and Variables don’t.”


14 posted on 03/25/2013 1:31:55 PM PDT by laker_dad
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To: martin_fierro; 6SJ7; AdmSmith; AFPhys; Arkinsaw; allmost; aristotleman; autumnraine; Beowulf; ...

Thanks martin_fierro.


· List topics · post a topic · subscribe · Google ·

15 posted on 03/25/2013 8:11:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I’m still waiting for ‘them’ to give a better definition of the zero point field.


16 posted on 03/25/2013 8:13:49 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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To: The Cajun

Well yes, yes there are. Think Shwartzchild and black holes.


17 posted on 03/25/2013 8:16:32 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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To: Kevmo

Thanks for the ping, dear Kevmo!


18 posted on 03/25/2013 8:45:33 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: MHGinTN
Well yes, yes there are. Think Shwartzchild and black holes

I was thinking along the lines of astronomer Halton Arp and the anomalies he discovered about red shift distance measurements in certain areas.
Quasars billions of light years in distance, according to red shift, interacting with near galaxies.

19 posted on 03/25/2013 8:50:45 PM PDT by The Cajun (Sarah Palin, Mark Levin......Nuff said.)
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To: The Cajun

There are photographs of a quasar and a galaxy from which the quasar is draining ‘gasses’, and a star in the flow stream! Only problem is, the quasar is supposed to be many light years further away from us than the galaxy from which the stream is flowing. The size of the stream is supposedly measurable because of the star caught in the ‘stream’. That stream is not many light years in length. Truly, the Universe is stranger than we can even imagine ... yet.


20 posted on 03/25/2013 10:09:40 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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