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GoldenDelicious
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it goes exactly the same speed, but since youre travelling in the same direction, it only seems slower ie its a relative, not absolute, speed.
look up the doppler effect and have a read
cheerios
look up the doppler effect and have a read
cheerios
"The speed of light through a transparent medium (that is, not in vacuum) is less than c; the ratio of c to this speed is called the refractive index of the medium."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
HTH,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
HTH,
blut wump
New member
One thing that would occasionally ponder on is the invisibility of the photon. Until it hits your eye you don't even know it's there. Space is utterly choca with photons but we still see a black sky.
Apparently, it's well known that the speed of light varies from medium to medium, to less than c. One odd way to think about the direction that the refraction will take is to imagine the light being a small beam and there being brakes at the point where the light enters the denser medium. Light will bend in that direction.
Apparently, it's well known that the speed of light varies from medium to medium, to less than c. One odd way to think about the direction that the refraction will take is to imagine the light being a small beam and there being brakes at the point where the light enters the denser medium. Light will bend in that direction.
MaGilicuti
New member
about 5mph
A team of Australian scientists has proposed that the speed of light may not be a constant, a revolutionary idea that could unseat one of the most cherished laws of modern physics -- Einstein's theory of relativity.
The suggestion that the speed of light can change is based on data collected by UNSW astronomer John Webb, who posed a conundrum when he found that light from a distant quasar, a star-like object, had absorbed the wrong type of photons from interstellar clouds on its 12 billion year journey to earth.
Davies said fundamentally Webb's observations meant that the structure of atoms emitting quasar light was slightly but ever so significantly different to the structure of atoms in humans.
The discrepancy could only be explained if either the electron charge, or the speed of light, had changed.
The suggestion that the speed of light can change is based on data collected by UNSW astronomer John Webb, who posed a conundrum when he found that light from a distant quasar, a star-like object, had absorbed the wrong type of photons from interstellar clouds on its 12 billion year journey to earth.
Davies said fundamentally Webb's observations meant that the structure of atoms emitting quasar light was slightly but ever so significantly different to the structure of atoms in humans.
The discrepancy could only be explained if either the electron charge, or the speed of light, had changed.
RADAR, look up Cherenkov radiation -- the blue glow around a radiation source in a water pool is a good example of that. It occurs when a particle exceeds the speed of light *in a transparent medium.* No particle with a non-zero rest mass can exceed c (the speed of light in a vacuum) but the speed of light in water is lower than c, so the particles emitted by the radiation source can go faster than that speed.
'Most scientific discoveries are not accompanied by a shout of "Eureka!" but rather by someone saying "That's odd...."' -- Isaac Asimov
'Most scientific discoveries are not accompanied by a shout of "Eureka!" but rather by someone saying "That's odd...."' -- Isaac Asimov
anthrax said:
Err... it's going to be one of those "Yes, but..." things.
We can safely assume space to be a feasible approximation of a vacuum. Thus, we can say that in space, the speed of light is indeed constant.
To get technical, light going through a medium -- that is, through stuff -- is slower. Kinda like sound goes a certain number of miles per hour, but sound traveling through water or through a wall or something will make it travel faster or slower. Light's kinda like that, but to get detailed and stuff involves breaking light down to it's true electromagnetic propagating wavicle-like self. Since light is kind of an EM wave, this wave can be hindered traveling through stuff -- that is, something that cannot be approximated as a vacuum.
So the simple answer is yes, the speed of light is constant in space.
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