Replies

I'm sure Physicst and Radio Astronomer are quaking in their boots from the blow you have struck. Are you of the opinion that the speed of light has been modified in the laboratory?

That is my understanding. If light can be slowed down that drastically, then one cannot state that the speed of light is necessarily constant or equal when coming from any given source compared to any other source. Between that and the red shift issue, that pretty much blows any confidence in results based on light time and leaves only Geometric projections which are of no confidence over infinite distances. The precision of the angles at base become a guess and thusly precision in general erodes.

That is my understanding.

What if your understanding is wrong? Have you read and understood the research papers, or are you relying on reports in the popular press?

Are you aware of the difference between the measured speed of light and the theoretical speed in a vacuum? Do you have any understanding of the conditions under which the measured speed is slowed, and can you relate this to interstellar distances?

Do you know anything at all about how interstellar distances have been measured? Do you believe everything depends on red shift?

And if you don't intend to answer these questions, at least indicate why.

How old is the earth, and in what way is the scientific estimate "not scientific"?

Where did the water for the global flood come from and where did it go, and how are the scientific calculations on this subject "not scientific"?

What exactly is a species, and how is science wrong in defining species?

What is the biological barrier preventing variation from becoming speciation, and exactly how does this barrier function?

Does selection occur ever? Has it been observed? If so, where does the information come from that makes selection work?

How does the growth of a fertilized egg occur within the confines of the Second Law of Thermodynamics?

js1138: I'm sure Physicst and Radio Astronomer are quaking in their boots from the blow you have struck. Are you of the opinion that the speed of light has been modified in the laboratory?

Havoc: That is my understanding. If light can be slowed down that drastically, then one cannot state that the speed of light is necessarily constant or equal when coming from any given source compared to any other source. Between that and the red shift issue, that pretty much blows any confidence in results based on light time and leaves only Geometric projections which are of no confidence over infinite distances. The precision of the angles at base become a guess and thusly precision in general erodes.

Ummm.… Let us start with the reader knowing at least something about the electromagnetic spectrum.

Light is slowed down in different mediums such as glass or water. The ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum versus the speed in the medium such as water is called the index of refraction. This is why you see a pencil "bend" when you place it half way into a glass of water. As light crosses over from one medium to another, not only does its speed change, but its wavelength as well. Note: the frequency remains unchanged. Thusly, the index of refraction can be stated in terms of wavelength as well. Snell's Law describes this phenomenon. (You can Google Snell' Law if you want to follow the math).

What is even more interesting (I know I am being really simple here so for all you physics lurkers out there, please do not have an apoplexy) is that different frequencies travel at different velocities in a medium. This is why a prism splits the different frequencies of a white light into a rainbow due to the index of refraction of each color (frequency).

Ok, now that we got thru that, when physicist and astronomers talk about the speed of light, they are usually talking about light speed in a vacuum. In fact, it is now an invariant. In other words, its speed in a vacuum never changes. This invariant speed is 299,792.458 km/sec. This enables us to use the speed of light over time as a distance measurement more commonly known as the light year. BTW, astronomers prefer to use Parsecs instead of light years when describing distances

[Are you of the opinion that the speed of light has been modified in the laboratory?]
That is my understanding.

Your understanding is poor.

If light can be slowed down that drastically,

It can't. It can however be delayed. No, this is not the same thing.

then one cannot state that the speed of light is necessarily constant or equal when coming from any given source compared to any other source.

One can state that it is constant, because it is.

Between that and the red shift issue, that pretty much blows any confidence in results based on light time

Try again.

You sure go out of your way to look for excuses to avoid having to accept the most straightforward implications of the evidence, don't you?

and leaves only Geometric projections which are of no confidence over infinite distances.

Wow! Your misonceptions about geometry are as amazing as your misconceptions about biology! No, the distances are not "infinite" -- do you even know what the word means? And yes, geometry is still valid over "really really big" distances". How on Earth did you get the mistaken impression that it's not?

The precision of the angles at base become a guess and thusly precision in general erodes.

The hell they do... You haven't the faintest clue how the angles are determined, do you?

Furthermore, there are many geometric methods for determining distances which do not rely on "precision of the angles at base", but then I guess you're unaware of *that* as well...