Variable speed of light

[baudrunner]

In my readings I discovered why Einstein stated that nothing can exceed the speed of light. It all had to do with the equations which would not permit values larger than c, because of the laws of mathematics. It would corrupt the result. In the real experience, that assumption might yet prove wrong, because of course math is not infallible, so long as it can be used to prove the impossible. It was once thought that the sound barrier could not be broken. c might be just the "light barrier".

But now, "antiinflation".. what an idea! Why not? I like it.

[Farsight]

it isn't to do with the laws of mathematics baudrunner. It's because matter is "made of light". Check out pair production and annihilation:



The electron is a photon configuration. All matter is. And matter cannot go faster than the light from which it is made.

[Max™]

Or, matter and light and space are all the same thing, and gravity is a result of stretched space due to the folded distance located within bodies of mass.

Matter can't go faster than light because space has an inherent resistance to being knotted up, much less having those knots dragged around within it.

As you attempt to push the knots up to light speed, you're dragging them through greater and greater total distances, reducing their interaction with time more and more, and when you reach a time dilation effect corresponding roughly to the planck time, you would be interacting with distance scales on the order of the radius of the universe or greater. I suspect you simply won't be able to accelerate any further past that point, similar avoidance as the one involved with singularities.

[Farsight]

Of course, there is a trick way to go faster than light.

You accelerate up to say .99c and enjoy a sevenfold time dilation. So you get to Alpha Centauri, four light years away, in about 7 months. But that's 7 months of your time. Not mine. Accelerate to .99999999c and you can cross the galaxy in weeks. Of your time, not mine.

So there's no going back. It's a one way ticket.

[roundhousekick]

You can't be too wrong on that one VanillaGorilla. Speed of light does slow down upon entering water, but then speed up upon exiting (haven't experimented but I'll buy the result). To me, light travel at that speed because it is dipped in a medium (not yet discovered). The reason it speed up again is because it is self propelled (inertia propulsion). Think about an object dropping from a plane or a motor with certain power, it'll reach terminal speed. Speed of light to me is just a terminal speed in the...aether (Ok, i just said the aether :P )

[AntonioLao]

photons aren't pushed and pulled a tiny bit during the time it takes to reach their desitination

My concern is who is doing the pushing and the pulling? Are you suggesting that photons can push or pull among themselves?

[Vanamali]

The speed of light is a constant for a given medium. Gravity can affect only the path of the light and not its velocity. The concept of the photons being pushed or pulled seems very absurd to me, because, photons are not material particles. They are dimensionless "packets of energy". One may imagine photons as lumps of energy. Hence they cannot be pushed or pulled(attracted gravitationally). Regarding the force attracted by the black holes, they don't attract light. Black holes attract matter only. Since the presence of extremely high gravitational field renders the space-time fabric inside the event horizon curved, the light cannot come out of the black hole. It has nothing to do with the speed of light.

[Mohan.C]

The speed of light is a constant for a given medium. Gravity can affect only the path of the light and not its velocity. The concept of the photons being pushed or pulled seems very absurd to me, because, photons are not material particles. They are dimensionless "packets of energy". One may imagine photons as lumps of energy. Hence they cannot be pushed or pulled(attracted gravitationally). Regarding the force attracted by the black holes, they don't attract light. Black holes attract matter only. Since the presence of extremely high gravitational field renders the space-time fabric inside the event horizon curved, the light cannot come out of the black hole. It has nothing to do with the speed of light.

Matter is different from mass.

Light is a wave-particle. Which doesn't mean it is a lump of energy, which means it is a wave which also behaves like a particle, mathematically. People just couldn't say particle-light, so instead they have called it photon.

Are you saying that, if, hypothetically, someone is caught in the event horizon and manage to go faster than the speed of light, still they won't be able to escape from the black hole's gravity?

[Vanamali]

I used the term "lump" only to indicate that energy is a discreet variable and not a continuous variable.

No. I said the space-time inside the event horizon is curved. For your question, the answer is: Hypothetically, YES the person can escape.

[JAK]

Of course, there is a trick way to go faster than light.
...

Speaking of tricks, the Higgs Boson has been tricky, too. And I think that is because it does not exist.

First, Thanks Farsight, for your earlier references to John Moffat who reminded me about the Higgs Boson.

I am now trying to eliminate the Higgs Boson since it hasn't been found for 30 years and would be the only scalar particle ever found.

Einstein equated gravity with acceleration, so gravity, too, may be a myth - especially with the realization that the universe is expanding - AND accelerating!

I've got some questions on another thread I just started, but for this thread, light is obviously variable by virtue of its retarded penetration through any media (a non-vacuum). This fact suggests to me that particles inhibit each other and disrupt the speed of light. If the disruption relates to "mass" (Einstein's gravity = acceleration), then the disruption is the scalar factor to be found, not the Higgs Boson. Further, if greater disruption causes decreased acceleration as well as the feeling of gravity, then gravity is related to acceleration, not a graviton. With these substitutions, a scalar (and non-particle) solution can be formed for both gravity and mass.

Thoughts?

JAK