The speed of light is NOT constant

[scott wurcer]

I knew such people existed, but I didn't realise some of them had physics degrees!

I was told recently that the chairman of one of the departments at Harvard, tenured, famous, etc. truely belived in alien possession (David Icke style). He became quite an embarassment to his department.

 

[DF96]

Mach liked mechanistic views.

Not me, then. I have been heard to criticise the overly mechanistic views exhibited by some engineers, as they seem to be firmly planted in a Newtonian pre-Maxwell world. Better than the pre-Newtonian world of some 'audio' people, though!

 

[popilin]

My view is that at present there are no satisfactory explanation for quantum mechanics. I never was convinced by the Copenhagen Interpretation, although that is what I was taught at university. I find the multiple universe idea even stranger. An instrumentalist would not be bothered by this, as the calculations clearly deliver the right answers, but I am a realist so I want more than numbers!

By 'realist' I mean that there really is stuff out there, and we can (to a limited extent) come up with genuine explanations of what it is and how it interacts. It is the lack of a coherent explanation which troubles me about QM, although it is so accurate in its predictions that any explanation would have to lead to more-or-less identical equations.

Hallelujah! You can't know how happy it makes me your post!
From Einstein to Afshar, nobody dares to say something like that!
Say it in an academic setting would be a "sincerecide"

I agree absolutely with what you say, now I know I'm not alone.
Well, we had some "differences" in the past...
If I were not so poor, you can be sure that I would travel to London to shake your hand.

 

[popilin]

I hope this has been written here before, if it has just ignore me.

The speed of light has to be constant because of entropy, the arrow of time, cause and effect and the fact that the laws of nature has to be the same for every frame of reference.

1. The laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference.
2. The speed of light in vacuum, c, is constant and is the same in all inertial frames of reference, regardless of the state of motion of the source.
These are "God's Caprices" and the postulates on which was based Einstein to formulate the Special Theory of Relativity.

As was shown by Boltzmann, the entropy of an isolated system is always increasing.
The arrow of entropy has the same direction as the arrow of time.
So far, this saves us from the annoying "tourists from the future"

 

[M Gregg]

Well,

The speed of light is not constant...Speed in a black hole? = 0 ?

Interesting S. Hawking...there is only energy... &

Looking at the universe

A flat field with a man building a hill. The man builds the hill..as we pan above we see a hole of equal size a mirror of the hill in negative form..where the material has been taken..(Dark Matter)?

When we add the + hill to - hole we have 0..the beginning of everything?

Regards
M. Gregg

 

[albin]

"tourists from the future"
And yet everyday we greet "tourists from the past".
regards.

 

[M Gregg]

Interesting..

S. Hawking

To assume that 0 is a steady state is wrong..
Quantum mechanics seems to prove this..a proton can appear and then disappear.
When at the centre of a black hole quantum mechanics is “at play”, size is everything..

How small would the universe have to be to “appear”?

(Smaller than a proton?)

Regards
M. Gregg

 

[M Gregg]

..

How to prove you can vanish up your own..***

how-to-imagine-the-tenth-dimension - YouTube


<<<only 3 dimensions..in my post..

Regards
M. Gregg

 

[Pano]

Better than the pre-Newtonian world of some 'audio' people, though!

Most of the best music was written before 1687, anyway.

 

[popilin]

Most of the best music was written before 1687, anyway.

Just now I understand

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica -July 1687-

But you leave behind to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven...

Not to mention that the best British musician was Händel.

 

[Pano]

I'm not into that crazy Germanic stuff.....
(Bach lived in a mostly pre-Newtonian world, anyway)

 

[tvrgeek]

Most of the best music was written before 1687, anyway.

I have to strongly disagree. Bach was not born until 1685. Khachaturian in 1903. LVB, 1770. Segovia 1893. I still need my Jazz, Blues, and good old rock and roll. What value would life have without the great works of Tom Lehrer? How can one not list "Dark side of the moon, the second best seller after the birthday song") OK, how many here are old enough to know where that line came from!

 

[popilin]

I'm not into that crazy Germanic stuff.....
(Bach lived in a mostly pre-Newtonian world, anyway)

Vivaldi?

Edit: J.S.Bach born in 1685

 

[Pano]

Now you're on the right track. All that new stuff is just noise, really.

 

[popilin]

A silly question
Einstein and Planck, as musicians, were they good physicists?

 

[SY]

tvr, it was (I think) Carlin, though Cheech and Chong would be my second guess. Or was that "Innagaddadavida"?

 

[tvrgeek]

tvr, it was (I think) Carlin, though Cheech and Chong would be my second guess. Or was that "Innagaddadavida"?

My mistake. You are right. Guess I was too busy looking for a place to put my stuff.

 

[tvrgeek]

Now you're on the right track. All that new stuff is just noise, really.

And I find the earlier stuff very thin. Of course, the instruments were thin, so they wrote to the instruments. I prefer the later, big and nasty with everyone in the pit playing. A lot of contemporary music will stand the test of time. The advantage is now, we have access to what is good. Of course we have access to all that is bad. Great is rare. 200 years from now, we will still have Gershwin, Beatles, and Dylan. I just hope history will have found a way to eliminate Disco from the record as a blight on culture.

 

[scott wurcer]

Aw come on, ring my bell. Better yet, poor Minnie Riperton.

 

[Pano]

Disco was not about the music, Disco was about the dancing. This is important.