Speed of Light

yhwh

Was wondering if because this speed can never be broken (special relativity and all that) would there be a way to speed it up as it were i.e. make light travel at faster or even slower speeds or am I talking complete bollocks.

I've heard about all sorts of theory's with regard to intersteller travel like worm holes or the Alcubierre drive but how do we know that light has only one speed???

Myrddin

yhwh wrote: »

but how do we know that light has only one speed???

It doesnt. Doesnt it travel slower through an atmosphere/water than in a vacumne?

Didnt scientists recently slow down light, copy it and duplicate it in another place? Correct me if Im wrong however

Conor108

EnterNow wrote: »

It doesnt. Doesnt it travel slower through an atmosphere/water than in a vacumne?

If my leaving cert physics is right.......yes, yes it does:)

CatHerder

yhwh wrote: »

Was wondering if because this speed can never be broken (special relativity and all that) would there be a way to speed it up as it were i.e. make light travel at faster or even slower speeds or am I talking complete bollocks.

Could changing the speed of light affect other variables in E=MC2
The distance you want to travel might change

yhwh

If you can slow down light then by definition you should be able to speed it up right

So if you cant beat the speed of light, why not change it, make the speed limit faster (At least locally) . And thus make interstellar travel over huge distances possible without causality kicking in. At least in theory

CatHerder

yhwh wrote: »

If you can slow down light then by definition you should be able to speed it up right

Then why use the term speed limit?

CatHerder

CatHerder wrote: »

Could changing the speed of light affect other variables in E=MC2

No, because the c in e=mc^2 is the speed of light in a vacuum and is a constant.

yhwh wrote: »

If you can slow down light then by definition you should be able to speed it up right

It's slower because the light beam is passing through a medium ie air or glass.
The "speed of light" usually means the "speed of light in a vacuum".
In a vacuum the beam doesn't pass through a medium and therefore travels at it maximum possible speed: 299,792,458 metres per second.

yhwh wrote: »

So if you cant beat the speed of light, why not change it, make the speed limit faster (At least locally) .

Because it's not an arbitrary limit.

yhwh

"In a vacuum the beam doesn't pass through a medium and therefore travels at it maximum possible speed: 299,792,458 metres per second"

How do we know though that this is light's absolute limit and it cant go faster then that

I'm probably not making any sense to be honest but was always curious about it. Limits are made to be broken after all

thecornflake

if i remember right , the constant was derived from maxwells equations, and mathematically proven to be the fastest it can travel. Are you taking the idea of increasing the speed from futurama ? I think i remember something like that in one of the episodes.

yhwh

lol just googled futurama, no not exactly

Was thinking more along the lines of things that already might break the speed of light i.e quasar jets or the expansion of space itself. Just don't like the idea of speed limits

jomo99

The speed of light, C, is the speed of light in a vacum, and not affected by gravity. Gravity can bend light, and so if light is travelling towards a strong source of gravity it will accelerate, so there for, if light is travelling away from a strong source of gravity, it will decelerate.

Don't forget, it wasn't too long ago that we thought we could not travel faster than 60 mph, then 100 mph, later the speed of sound, but we did.

John

thecornflake

as far as i remember there is a theory called V.S.L. , Variable Speed of Light. Forget where i heard it ( some tv documentary ) ( and yes i really am too lazy to google it ). It states as far as memory serves that the speed of light changes as the universe expands , or something like that.

thecornflake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_speed_of_light#The_varying_speed_of_light_cosmology

ok , so i was bothered after all.