Will the speed of light ever increase?

[why06]

SpaceTime<br /><br />1.A pretty sraight forward question... I do not know much on this subject, but I can tell you that space-time is expanding and if this is so space-time should eventuallyy get to the point where the speed of light is faster.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><font color="yellow"><i>Afterthought</i><font color="white"><br /> should the speed of light fluctuate in different parts of are solar system?<br /><br /><br />-<font color="yellow"> I know the whole <font color="white">" Are there any loopholes at all in the speed of light being a constant"<font color="yellow"> thing is getting old. So this question will mainly focus on the understanding of space time and how fast it will allow light to go. <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /><br /><br />-<font color="white">Thanks<font color="yellow">-</font></font></font></font></font></font></font> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div>________________________________________ <br /></div><div><ul><li><font color="#008000"><em>your move...</em></font></li></ul></div> </div>

 

[kmarinas86]

<font color="yellow">1.A pretty sraight forward question... I do not know much on this subject, but I can tell you that space-time is expanding and if this is so space-time should eventuallyy get to the point where the speed of light is faster.</font><br /><br />If the speed of light increases, the speed of everything else will increase - so you ain't gonna notice a darn thing =P.<br /><br />299792458 m/s * (electric constant * magnetic constant)^1/2 = unity = 1<br /><br />If the vacuum-oriented electric and magnetic constants were variable in time or space, the ivory tower would not even know it (as ether), and the ivory tower would instead call it variability in vacuum time dilation. But if we really want to think that time is not really changing rate but that some vacuums are more slippery than others, then that is a battle for the words man!<br /><br />The speed of light and the speed of time are phased matched, it's a conspiracy against ya!<br /><br />Consider person A. Assume that all light rays reaching "third eye" of person A is travelling to that at speed <b>c</b>. Then imagine person B's "third eye" travelling v=.5c in the opposite direction of one of these rays. Suppose a ray from person A's "third eye" towards the "third eye" of person B. The time dilation (note: not doppler effect) between the two people is just a matter of the extra time it takes for a photon to reach the other person + the time it would normally take (v=0). This factor is equal to [c²/(c²-v²)]^1/2 seconds per second. Provided that:<br /><br />u^2+v^2=c^2<br /><br />:this factor of time dilation would equal to c/u, in this case, 1/sqrt(3/4). If you want to think that this is the factor by which (electric constant * magnetic constant)^1/2 increases, and the factor by which 299792458 decreases, that is ok with me man. Look at it this way, a charge moving relative to another charge corresponds to a changing electric fiel

 

[nexium]

"Ever" inplies a very long time, so if the speed of light is increasing one part per trillion per century: We likely would not have noticed even though the speed of light would double in 100 trillion years, if that increase persisted very long term. Sorry, I cannot comment on any of what kmarinas86 typed. Neil

 

[weeman]

Probably the only way for the speed of light to increase is to add a small dose of Comcast Highspeed <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> Either that, or rub a ray of light with cheetah blood <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br />I have never really thought if the speed of light might actually speed up. I'm not entirely sure what factors might cause its speed to increase. <br /><br />BTW, I kinda got the cheetah blood joke from a Futurama episode <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>

 

[dragon04]

In the macroscopic and Einsteinian Universe, there's that pesky problem about needing infinite energy to break the speed limit if you have any mass at all.<br /><br />It's more likely that there's a way around it rather than going faster than light.<br /><br />If he meant will light itself ever exceed 300,000Km/s in a vacuum, I don't see how as a photon is massless and not affected by gravity. SO you couldn't boost the speed of light with anti-gravity if such a thing existed.<br /><br />I should note that the <b>path</b> of light is affected by gravity, though.<br /><br />However, I guess one could make a case for faster than light velocities in terms of recessional velocities based on the expansion of the Universe.<br /><br />My meager understanding is that this is different than "normal" velocity where light is just moving through space relative to a stationary observer.<br /><br />Still seems like in terms of recessional velocities, we're "adding to" the speed of light in Relativistic terms, but the whole thing is a bit over my head.<br /><br />Light is fast. Can't go any faster than it does relative to the source that emitted it.<br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[why06]

Im telling you...<br /><br /><font color="yellow">LIGHT <font color="white">and <font color="yellow">TIME TRAVEL<font color="white"> dilemnas should go hand-and-hand. Along with Buddhist koans<br /><br /><br />"hehe" <br />- <font color="yellow">what is the sound of one hand clapping?<br /><br /><font color="white">- <font color="yellow">what happen if you go back in time to shoot your grand-father?<br /><br /><font color="white">-<font color="yellow"> How can you go the speed of light if its always the same speed no matter what? <br /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div>________________________________________ <br /></div><div><ul><li><font color="#008000"><em>your move...</em></font></li></ul></div> </div>

 

[vandivx]

"space-time is expanding and if this is so space-time should eventually get to the point where the speed of light is faster."<br /><br />yes<br /><br />" should the speed of light fluctuate in different parts of are solar system?"<br /><br />again yes except that it is not detectable on the scale of our system but only on a much lager cosmic scales<br /><br />however the caveat is we can only measure the speed of light locally in laboratory scale experiments, therefore you need a developed theory if you want to prove that speed of light can be different in diferent parts of cosmos but it better be damn good theory because it won't be possible to verify it by any direct experiment, by measuring the speed of light elsewhere 'out there' outside as opposed to measuring it in our experimental labs (locally on Earth in short), in other words the theory will have to gain acceptance on the grounds that such assumption (non-constancy of c) will yield an integrated picture of cosmology and explain some outstanding puzzles on the assumption of the speed of light variability<br /><br />however that would still be the situation not unlike the dog chasing his tail, what is needed is a theory that would make sense and it would entail such variability of speed of light among other<br /><br />I hope I don't need to add that such ideas as I talk about here are not part of today's accepted or official physics as it is being taught in schools<br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nyarlathotep]

I think everyone here seems to be forgetting that scientists will increase the speed of light in 2208.

 

[why06]

Really....<br /><br /><br />.....Where did you find this out. I didn't forget. I never knew....<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div>________________________________________ <br /></div><div><ul><li><font color="#008000"><em>your move...</em></font></li></ul></div> </div>

 

[mako71]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><br />vanDivX: "space-time is expanding and if this is so space-time should eventually get to the point where the speed of light is faster." <br /><br />yes<br /><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />?!? If the space expands and the speed of light increases, do we even notice the expanding space? I think that the numeric value of speed-of-light is just irrelevant; our space expands, which means, that it expands relative to the speed-of-light. Making more space in between to accross...<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>________________ </p><p>reaaliaika.net </p> </div>

 

[why06]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><font color="yellow">do we even notice the expanding space?<p><hr /></p></font></p></blockquote><br /><br />Yes its called redshift. well that's if redshift constitutes expanding spcae. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div>________________________________________ <br /></div><div><ul><li><font color="#008000"><em>your move...</em></font></li></ul></div> </div>

 

[SpeedFreek]

But what is redshift? A shift in the wavelength of light!<br /><br />The question was "If the space expands and the speed of light increases, do we even notice the expanding space?"<br /><br />If the speed of light also increases, then the redshift should change directly in relation to it. This means we may not notice the expanding space. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>

 

[nikolaus008]

On the "Will the speed of light ever increase?"<br /><br />What about in Black holes? If the gravity is so strong light cannot escape, doesn't that mean that the light is moving faster than itself, but in reverse? I don't know? Is light moving faster than C within the chaos of a Black hole? <br /><br />Let's just say one could travel at the speed of light... Would the Red shift then appear to be a Blue shift?<br /><br />No matter ones perspective of an object, the object remains the same. Does the butterfly notice the Oaktree expanding?

 

[why06]

<font color="yellow">???..what...<font color="white"><br />Noone knows if the speed of light exists inside blackholes because we've technically haven't seen one or gathered enough imformation from them to know they exist for certain.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">For speed:<font color="white"><br />If the speed of light increased with space-time uniformly than the change would be unnoticable...THey mise-well not be expanding ta all.<br />...The reason we can detect red-shift is because space is expanding and the speed of light is not at the same rate... hence the red-shift..ummm...I THINK??<br /><br />Is red-shift effected by the speed light is going as well as the object it is coming from?</font></font></font></font> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div>________________________________________ <br /></div><div><ul><li><font color="#008000"><em>your move...</em></font></li></ul></div> </div>

 

[why06]

than where is the <font color="red">red-shift<font color="white"> coming from?</font></font> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div>________________________________________ <br /></div><div><ul><li><font color="#008000"><em>your move...</em></font></li></ul></div> </div>

 

[SpeedFreek]

What I meant was, if the speed of light is affected by the expansion of space, and the speed of light was changed by that expansion, then might we not notice a difference in the redshift we see now and the redshift we see after the speed of light changed, because it is the expansion that changed it?<br /><br />Cosmological redshift is supposed to be caused by the expansion of space. The expansion <i> stretches </i> the light as it travels towards us. If the rate of expansion also caused the speed of light to increase, maybe the difference in the expansion that caused the speed to increase would cancel out any change in the redshift? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>

 

[why06]

Yes, but if that were true we would not detect changes....Which we have already been known to detect. <br /><br />But if what you say is true than what is causing the red-shift besides expansion. One way of the other something has to be moving away. If what you said were true and we still belived that the expansion caused red- shift we would see no red-shift.<br /><br />This would mean there has to be another reason for the red-shift... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div>________________________________________ <br /></div><div><ul><li><font color="#008000"><em>your move...</em></font></li></ul></div> </div>

 

[SpeedFreek]

Yes, I see what you mean, now. I think I was barking up the wrong tree. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>

 

[vandivx]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>?!? If the space expands and the speed of light increases, do we even notice the expanding space? I think that the numeric value of speed-of-light is just irrelevant; our space expands, which means, that it expands relative to the speed-of-light. Making more space in between to accross... <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />the speed of light may not increase exactly proportionally so as to mask the space expansion and if it did that, then it might show up in measurement of those various other constants and likely we would be aware of what is happening - that the speed of light increased and space expanded <br /><br />on the other hand if we had bad luck and all possible measurements would conspire against us then that would be that but then we might not be bothered by that, I mean everything would remain the same so why worry and not be happy <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[mako71]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><br />why06: But if what you say is true than what is causing the red-shift besides expansion.<br /><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />You mean that there's observed red shift more than caused by expansion? I've never heard about that (I thought that the whole expansion thing was suggested because of red shift)... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>________________ </p><p>reaaliaika.net </p> </div>

 

[why06]

No i mean if people are suggesting that the red-shift is not caused by expanding spacetime than some better come up with a better idea ASAP <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div>________________________________________ <br /></div><div><ul><li><font color="#008000"><em>your move...</em></font></li></ul></div> </div>