# Tagged Questions

The speed of light is fundamental universal constant that marks the maximum speed at which information can propagate. Its value is $299792458\frac{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{s}}$.

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### Extended Rigid Bodies in Special Relativity

I was reading Landau & Lifhsitz's Classical Field Theory and I noticed that they mention that an extended rigid body isn't "relativistically correct". For example, if you consider a rigid rod ...
8answers
2k views

### Would time freeze if you can travel at the speed of light?

I read with interest about Einstein's Theory of Relativity and his proposition about the speed of light being the speed limit for anything with mass. So, if I were ...
1answer
44 views

### Does the magnitude of a mass affect the velocity?

Imagine that I shrink my entire mass to fit within the volume of a light particle. If I was then 'hit' by another light particle would my greater mass affect my gain in velocity from this collision ...
3answers
76 views

### What causes the permittivity and permeability of vacuum?

When light travels through a material, it gets "slowed down" (at least its net speed decreases). The atoms in the material "disturb" the light in some way which causes it to make stops on its path. ...
2answers
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### Superluminal particles with causality

What kind of CLASSICAL theories would allow to true (non-apparent) superluminal particles (beyond speed of light, BSOL) agreeing with causality to exist? I mean, are causal superluminal classical ...
1answer
28 views

### Relation of color and frequency for the visible spectrum

In this question the OP is looking for a way to see light that is outside of the visible spectrum without using electronic sensors. This got me wondering about the visible spectrum itself. Typically ...
1answer
80 views

### Describing physical constants in alternate wording; c = there can only be 671million miles of space for every second of time [closed]

This spawns from part of an answer to a question I asked. All sorts of things go to 0 and/or ∞ if you start boosting at c, and so you cannot boost into and out of a photon's frame. It ...
1answer
95 views

### Neutrinos and Speed of light

Einstein's Special Theory of relativity postulates that the speed of light is same for all frames. Suppose a neutrino is there moving at the speed of light. Then will that neutrino also be flowing ...
1answer
49 views

### Zero uncertainty constant and a unit change

So, we know the speed of light with zero uncertainty. We also know that values of $\epsilon_0$ (electric constant) and $\mu_0$ (magnetic constant) are known with zero uncertainty. My questions are ...
13answers
5k views

### How does gravity escape a black hole?

My understanding is that light can not escape from within a black hole (within the event horizon). I've also heard that information cannot propagate faster than the speed of light. It would seem to ...
1answer
111 views

### Why does Lorentz factor not hold for relativistic mass when we apply it to photons? [duplicate]

We know that the photon itself is massless particle $m_0=0$. But we also know, that the mass of the objects does increase with their energy. And we know that under certain circumstances (gravity, ...
0answers
69 views

### Is there any proof that the speed of gravity is limited? [duplicate]

I must warn that though I'm argumenting with black holes I'm not asking how does gravity escape the black hole!. I want to know if the absolute speed of gravity waves were proven bu an experiment. We ...
9answers
6k views

### Why does the mass of an object increase when its speed approaches that of light?

I'm reading Nano: The Essentials by T. Pradeep and I came upon this statement in the section explaining the basics of scanning electron microscopy. However, the equation breaks down when the ...
1answer
82 views

### Could the shadow move with faster-than-light speed? [duplicate]

If I make a huge laser with a figure for shadow in front of the laser, and I shine it on to the moon, will I see the light from the laser AND the shadow moving the same speed? (I read somewhere the ...
3answers
185 views

### Could some Red and Blue shifts be the result of light passing through “dark matter”?

As i see it, light behaves in certain ways, as the Double Slit experiement shows, So when light comes into contact with dark matter, it becomes both a wave and a particle, the wave is bent around the ...
1answer
95 views

### Could entropy explain dark energy?

This was 3rd beer idea, so please bear with me. What if the universe was not actually expanding but the speed of light was slowing? Wouldn't that be indistinguishable to our observations? Either way ...
3answers
98 views

### Reaching the speed of light via quantum mechanical uncertainty?

Suppose you accelerate a body to very near the speed of light $c$ where $v = c - \epsilon$. Although this would take an enormous energy, is it possible the last arbitrarily small velocity needed -- ...
1answer
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### Is the speed of light related to the mass of the universe?

If the mass of the universe were cut in half, would it affect the speed of light? Would it be twice as fast? Would it stay the same? Do we have instruments that are sensitive enough to measure the ...
2answers
61 views

### Special Theory of relativity on electromagnetic waves

Since time slows down and length contracts, when we travel almost at speed of light, if the speed of light (or EM waves) remains same and the wavelength of light remains same, do we measure the ...
1answer
46 views

### Live feed from a Rocket traveling near the speed of light?

Okay, odd question popped up in my physics class today. If a rocket ship is traveling at .99c for 1 year, and is streaming a video at 30 frames/sec to earth, how would the earth feed be affected? ...
1answer
187 views

### drift velocity of electrons in a superconductor

is there a formula for the effective speed of electron currents inside superconductors? The formula for normal conductors is: $$V = \frac{I}{nAq}$$ I wonder if there are any changes to this ...
1answer
62 views

### Magnets and speed of light

I am in no way a physicist but I do have a fascination with physics. My question is if magnets are being explored / studied as a potential source to achieve the speed of light and if that is even ...
0answers
59 views

### How does this paper relate to standard QED?

This paper proposes a microscopic mechanism for generating the values of $c, \epsilon_0, \mu_0$. They state that their vacuum is assumed to contain ephemeral (meaning existing within the limits of ...
3answers
102 views

### Stuff can't go at the speed of light - in relation to what? [duplicate]

We all know that stuff can't go faster than the speed of light - it's length becomes negative and all kinds of weird stuff happens. However, this is in relation to what? If two objects, each moving ...
1answer
104 views

### Michelson–Morley @ Home

The Michelson-Morley experiment seems to have taken many years, resources and a nervous breakdown to complete. Is it possible to recreate a variation of this experiment at home for say, under \$1000, ...
2answers
102 views

### Is Earth's orbit around the sun affected by the ~8 minutes light delay?

Gravitational change occurs at the speed of light. As a consequence, we experience on Earth the gravitational attraction of the sun based on its position relative to us ~8 minutes ago. How does this ...
3answers
69 views

### What is the cause the light is affected by gravity? [duplicate]

I know that photons have no mass and that a photons exist only moving at the speed of light. So what is the cause that a massive astronomical object can bend a ray of light? I have two thoughts, but I ...
3answers
312 views

### Can something travel faster than light if it has always been travelling faster than light?

I know there are zillions of questions about faster than light travel, but please hear me out. According to special relativity, it is impossible to accelerate something to the speed of light. However, ...
1answer
28 views

### If there's a light ray and it's turned to a new location by a certain angle

Imagine that there's a light ray, with source at point A, and it's directed towards point B (which is very far from point A) and it continues for a huge distance. How will an observer at point B ...
1answer
55 views

### Rømer's determination of the speed of light

I am trying to understand Rømer's determination of the speed of light ($c$). The geometry of the situation is shown in the image below. The determination involves measuring apparent fluctuations in ...
2answers
92 views

### What is the mass of a photon moving at the speed of light? [duplicate]

What is the mass of a photon moving at the speed of light? And if it does not have mass, how is it affected by gravity? Also why does Einstein's general relativity support that a gravitational wave ...
3answers
124 views

### Why are black holes special?

A black hole is where it's mass is great enough that light can't escape at a radius above the surface of the mass? I've been told that strange things happen inside the event horizon such as ...
1answer
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### Wavefront emitted by bodies at traveling near the velocity of light

I studied that no body can travel with the velocity of light. But, assuming that when a body moves nearly velocity of light, will it obey length contraction law of Einstein or will it emit the same ...
10answers
6k views

### Does the Pauli exclusion principle instantaneously affect distant electrons?

According to Brian Cox in his A night with the Stars lecture$^1$, the Pauli exclusion principle means that no electron in the universe can have the same energy state as any other electron in the ...
2answers
60 views

### Speed and transparency of light

I have been puzzled with a fact that as an object moves faster, it ceases its property of opacity. I mean to say that as an object moves faster we can see right through it (more clearly than in a ...
3answers
546 views

### Why is a black hole black?

In general relativity (ignoring Hawking radiation), why is a black hole black? Why nothing, not even light, can escape from inside a black hole? To make the question simpler, say, why is a ...
3answers
154 views

### Is there absolute proof that an object cannot exceed the speed of light?

Have any known experiments ruled out travelling faster than the speed of light? Or is this just a widely accepted theory?
1answer
60 views

### How do we know that light is massless? [duplicate]

Almost everybody knows that light is massless. But where this come from and how it can be proven (experimentally or theoretically)? I actually found this article which explains and calculates the mass ...
2answers
12k views

### Why does wavelength change as light enters a different medium?

When light waves enter a medium of higher refractive index than the previous, why is it that: Its wavelength decreases? The frequency of it has to stay the same?
0answers
151 views

### How is it possible the speed of light is not constant?

I was reading this article recently, which summarizes a couple of new studies into the speed of light. In one paper, Marcel Urban from the University of Paris-Sud, located in Orsay, France and his ...
2answers
39 views

### About hubble observatory and distant galaxies [duplicate]

According to Hubble observatory, the age of universe is 14 billion years. But, the distant galaxies are about 40 billion light years. How could that simply be possible? That means the information that ...
2answers
295 views

### Why cosmic background radiation is not ether?

why cosmic background radiation is not ether? I mean it's everywhere and it' a radiation then we can measure Doppler effect by moving with a velocity.
2answers
158 views

### Has anyone ever measured the one way speed of light perpendicular to the Earth at the Earth's surface?

1 - Has anyone ever measured the one way speed of photons traveling perpendicular to the Earth at the Earth's surface? 2 - Given our current understanding of Physics is there any way both the upward ...
2answers
152 views

### Can a dot of light travel faster than the speed of light? [duplicate]

Say I have a laser. If I spin the laser so that the beam sweeps in an arc along a very distant object, could that dot travel faster than the speed of light? In Diagram form:
5answers
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### Special Relativity Second Postulate

That the speed of light is constant for all inertial frames is the second postulate of special relativity but this does not means that nothing can travel faster than light. so is it possible the ...
3answers
505 views

### Special Relativity and $E = mc^2$

I read somewhere that $E=mc^2$ shows that if something was to travel faster than the speed of light then they would have infinite mass and would have used infinite energy. How does the equation show ...
2answers
71 views

### How does the wavelength change in relativistic limit?

In the text, it reads that the momentum of a particle will change if it is moving at speed close to light speed. In the general case, the wavelength is given as $$\lambda = \frac{h}{p}$$ and p ...
4answers
349 views

### How does $E=mc^2$ put an upper limit to velocity of a body?

How does $E=mc^2$ put a upper limit to velocity of a body? I have read some articles on speed of light and they just tell me that it is the maximum velocity that can be acquired by any particle. How ...
3answers
86 views

### Special Relativity - speed of light question

Just a basic question: I know that if you are traveling at $x$ speed the time will pass for you slower than to an observer that is relatively stopped. That's all just because a photon released at the ...
0answers
42 views

### Do all the 4 forces of nature act at the same speed? [duplicate]

It is believed that gravity, the weakest of the four forces propagates at the speed of light, cf. e.g. this Phys.SE post. One would expect (perhaps erroneously) that the other, stronger, forces acted ...
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