Sorry, Harvey, I hate to sound like Sheldon Cooper but there are a number of problems in that video:
1. Planets don’t “rotate” about the sun. They “revolve.” Planetary bodies “rotate” about their own ♠♠”axis of rotation” (e.g., Earth has a 24hr. rotation period).
2. It has not been proven that gravity travels at the speed of light, but it is part and parcel of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, which has yet to be disproven.
3. Time ceases at the speed of light. Not only that, photons of light do not interact with anything during their flight until they are captured (so to speak) by matter. So, if you were traveling past the Earth at the speed of light, you wouldn’t know it.
4. If you found yourself in the great void between galaxies, you would still see them as faint fuzzy patches, just as we do on Earth, even through our hazy atmosphere.
5. If you keep accelerating at 1 g indefinitely, your perception of your own speed would ultimately be faster than the speed of light even though you only approach but never reach “c” when viewed from other frames of reference. This is due to the famous “Lorentz contraction” of time.
There’s more, but “Big Bang Theory” is coming up shortly! 🙂
@1 Jimmy – ok, I will stipulate to all these, but ONLY on the condition that you find me an interesting, entertaining, and scientifically accurate video to post.
So from what I understand, gravity can affect anything with mass. Photons have mass so gravity has influence on light. Does that mean that the speed of light is not a constant?
So I guess what I am asking based on the video and what I can remember from long ago science classes is that top speed of light is limited by the forces of gravity and that the speed of light can be altered? I dunno. This has offically become the most high browed conversation ever had on this site. I feel like we should all be in a library somewhere drinking brandy and smoking cigars discussing this.
AwesometificAmerican – btw, nowadays, physicists regard photons as massless, although even Wikepedia contradicts itself by saying “0” and then hedging with:
< 1×10^−18 eV/c²
Photons do carry momentum, however, which is odd if their mass is truly zero.
@14 Awesome: I think they do that a lot, because, let’s face it, the stuff is so mysterious. The one I can’t stand in quantum mechanics is the idea of an “observer.” There are no observers. Only “interactors.” In that sense, the Universe is constantly “observing” itself by particle interactions. A corollary of this is that there is no such thing as a pure “measurement.”
Oh, and you can’t drive your car at the the speed of light because God (the cosmic cop?) will pull you over and give you a speeding ticket!
If mass is replaced by m.rest / √(1-v²/c²), then the original equation can be interpreted in this way –
e = [m.rest/√(1-v²/c²)] * c²
This equation makes a powerful implication. It implies that no object can travel at the speed of light. In the equation above, if v is set to any value equal to or greater than c, then v²/c² would be equal to or greater than one. The inside of the square root would therefore be negative, and there is no real square root of a negative number. As the speed of an object approaches the speed of light, the mass of the object increases greatly, as well as the energy required to move it, while the speed of the object only increases slightly, as the energy itself adds to the mass.
Sorry, Harvey, I hate to sound like Sheldon Cooper but there are a number of problems in that video:
1. Planets don’t “rotate” about the sun. They “revolve.” Planetary bodies “rotate” about their own ♠♠”axis of rotation” (e.g., Earth has a 24hr. rotation period).
2. It has not been proven that gravity travels at the speed of light, but it is part and parcel of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, which has yet to be disproven.
3. Time ceases at the speed of light. Not only that, photons of light do not interact with anything during their flight until they are captured (so to speak) by matter. So, if you were traveling past the Earth at the speed of light, you wouldn’t know it.
4. If you found yourself in the great void between galaxies, you would still see them as faint fuzzy patches, just as we do on Earth, even through our hazy atmosphere.
5. If you keep accelerating at 1 g indefinitely, your perception of your own speed would ultimately be faster than the speed of light even though you only approach but never reach “c” when viewed from other frames of reference. This is due to the famous “Lorentz contraction” of time.
There’s more, but “Big Bang Theory” is coming up shortly! 🙂
@1 Jimmy – ok, I will stipulate to all these, but ONLY on the condition that you find me an interesting, entertaining, and scientifically accurate video to post.
Drop a link in the comments or just email it.
No complaining without offering a solution 😛
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCQx9U6awFw
Guaranteed to twist your brain into multi-dimensional knots! (Also, his voice his much like yours.)
🙂
BTW, I did offer solutions – just no videos.
In addition to the problems Jimmy pointed out, I have to add… how scientific can this be without including the phrase “Punch it, Chewie!”
So from what I understand, gravity can affect anything with mass. Photons have mass so gravity has influence on light. Does that mean that the speed of light is not a constant?
@5 AA – That… is a Google question…
I dont know. As a Christian the left tells me I am supposed to be Anti-Science! and all of this just smacks of witchcraft to me.
@5 AT – that and 1.21 gigawatts
@5
constant in any given medium. speed of light in a vacuum vs speed of light in water, for example.
299,792,458 m/s vs 224,310,000 m/s (approx)
speed of light in vac/refractive index of medium is the speed in the medium
So I guess what I am asking based on the video and what I can remember from long ago science classes is that top speed of light is limited by the forces of gravity and that the speed of light can be altered? I dunno. This has offically become the most high browed conversation ever had on this site. I feel like we should all be in a library somewhere drinking brandy and smoking cigars discussing this.
@10 AA – Think THIS is highbrow? Wait until I post Jimmy’s video on Saturday…
AwesometificAmerican – btw, nowadays, physicists regard photons as massless, although even Wikepedia contradicts itself by saying “0” and then hedging with:
< 1×10^−18 eV/c²
Photons do carry momentum, however, which is odd if their mass is truly zero.
So the question remains, If I am driving my car at the speed of light and turned on my headlights, will they work?
@12 That one boggles the mind because if it has no mass how does it exist? Sounds like physicists are just making stuff up to make a theory work.
@14 Awesome: I think they do that a lot, because, let’s face it, the stuff is so mysterious. The one I can’t stand in quantum mechanics is the idea of an “observer.” There are no observers. Only “interactors.” In that sense, the Universe is constantly “observing” itself by particle interactions. A corollary of this is that there is no such thing as a pure “measurement.”
Oh, and you can’t drive your car at the the speed of light because God (the cosmic cop?) will pull you over and give you a speeding ticket!
@13 AA
If mass is replaced by m.rest / √(1-v²/c²), then the original equation can be interpreted in this way –
e = [m.rest/√(1-v²/c²)] * c²
This equation makes a powerful implication. It implies that no object can travel at the speed of light. In the equation above, if v is set to any value equal to or greater than c, then v²/c² would be equal to or greater than one. The inside of the square root would therefore be negative, and there is no real square root of a negative number. As the speed of an object approaches the speed of light, the mass of the object increases greatly, as well as the energy required to move it, while the speed of the object only increases slightly, as the energy itself adds to the mass.
from: http://benblackwell.hubpages.com/hub/Einsteins-Equation-EMC2
This place is full of nerds!
I guess it’s not surprising considering who the bloggers are. 🙂
The only thing faster than light is the speed with which Eric Holder jumps to the conclusion that any criticism of his job performance is Racist!