Posted on 05/19/2016 1:06:30 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Ever since Democritus... argued that all of existence was made up of tiny indivisible atoms, scientists have been speculating as to the true nature of light. Whereas scientists ventured back and forth between the notion that light was a particle or a wave until the modern, the 20th century led to breakthroughs that showed that it behaves as both.
These included the discovery of the electron, the development of quantum theory, and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. However, there remains many fascinating and unanswered questions when it comes to light, many of which arise from its dual nature. For instance, how is it that light can be apparently without mass, but still behave as a particle? And how can it behave like a wave and pass through a vacuum, when all other waves require a medium to propagate?
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By the late 19th century, James Clerk Maxwell proposed that light was an electromagnetic wave, and devised several equations (known as Maxwell’s equations) to describe how electric and magnetic fields are generated and altered by each other and by charges and currents. By conducting measurements of different types of radiation (magnetic fields, ultraviolet and infrared radiation), he was able to calculate the speed of light in a vacuum (represented as c).
In 1905, Albert Einstein published “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”, in which he advanced one of his most famous theories and overturned centuries of accepted notions and orthodoxies. In his paper, he postulated that the speed of light was the same in all inertial reference frames, regardless of the motion of the light source or the position of the observer.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Is my previous post correct??? Or does the light disappear immediately when it goes away no matter the distance???
All I know is that whoever got the bright idea to stop using sewn in tags for t-shirts has obviously never had to get dressed in the dark.
When I read that I started to cry...it's so profound...
Pretty damn quick, as I understand it.
“when all other waves “
...referring to mechanical waves e.g, sound, water, earthquake.
I don't know, but I do know that the speed of light is even faster than my kids opening the refrigerator door...
If everyone traveled light, there would be no need for the TSA lines
LOL...I’m so glad I brought you so much “profoundness”...:o)
Dark Helmet says it can be exceeded by ludicrous speed.
Only if you tap the brakes.
Through the aether?
Wavicles. Sometimes with group velocity
Did you not basic physics?
It is. The speed of light, though swift for us, is no match for the vastness of space. Even our own galaxy, which is something like 100,000 light years across, the light starting out from the opposite rim when Christ was born would be only 1/50th of the way across by now. And that’s just in the local neighborhood. Imagine what it is like between galaxies.
Richard Boone - much better as the bad guy as in the movie “Hombre”.
With a background in electromagnetism, I agree with the ‘both - particle and wave - and with no mass ‘club’.
Electromagnetism uses ‘speed of light = C’ in many of its various formulae, including signal propagation and reception for communications and object tracking.
Answer: Lightly.
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