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To: BenLurkin

The first sentence of the article is wrong. Einstein never assigned a speed to light, he simply posited that the vacuum speed of light is invariant in all inertial reference frames. He agreed with Maxwell’s conclusion (equations) that the vacuum speed of light depended on properties of free space that could be measured.

From this simple postulate, Einstein went on to redefine physics in a way that removed inconsistencies and incompleteness in the existing laws of mechanics, and made electromagnetism consistent with mechanics. One of the conclusions of Einstein’s new mechanics was that nothing could travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.

I believe that the remarkable “observation” being touted in this article is that the neutrinos traveled faster than light (where have I heard that before?), since their arrival was delayed more than expected by theory.


53 posted on 06/28/2014 2:01:29 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (This is known as "bad luck". - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
The first sentence of the article is wrong. Einstein never assigned a speed to light, he simply posited that the vacuum speed of light is invariant in all inertial reference frames.

Thank you.

Einstein didn't measure the speed of light. He wasn't an experimental physicist. He was a theoretical physicist. Theoretical physicists don't make contraptions to measure things.

Speed of light history.

62 posted on 06/28/2014 6:20:42 PM PDT by samtheman
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

Well now you just ruined everything.


64 posted on 06/28/2014 6:24:49 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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