Why the Velocities of Material Bodies Cannot Achieve the Speed of Light in a Vacuum

Author(s):  
VADIM N. MATVEEV ◽  
OLEG V. MATVEJEV
2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-177
Author(s):  
David A. Grandy ◽  

In Einstein's theory of relativity, the speed of light is deemed an absolute value because it is indifferent to the motion of material bodies. Nothing we do can "take a bite" out of its measured velocity of 186,000 miles per second: it is an irreducible quantity. Similarly, our minds cannot race ahead quickly enough to reduce or convert light to everyday understandings. Indeed, modem physics portrays light as having an infinite aspect. Leading to talk of the spaceless, timeless character of light, this aspect permits the suggestion that light resonates spiritual possibilities, and this resonance supports the traditional religious view that light is a symbol or expression of divinity. It also provides a basis for affirming absolutes in ethical life. The relativist stance is thus countered on two fronts—scientific and sacred—with light shining through the veil or barrier that has historically divided the two.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piero Chiarelli

This work shows that in the frame of the stochastic generalization of the quantum hydrodynamic analogy (QHA) the uncertainty principle is fully compatible with the postulate of finite transmission speed of light and information. The theory shows that the measurement process performed in the large scale classical limit in presence of background noise, cannot have a duration smaller than the time need to the light to travel the distance up to which the quantum non-local interaction extend itself. The product of the minimum measuring time multiplied by the variance of energy fluctuation due to presence of stochastic noise shows to lead to the minimum uncertainty principle. The paper also shows that the uncertainty relations can be also derived if applied to the indetermination of position and momentum of a particle of mass m in a quantum fluctuating environment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1032-1035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramzi Suleiman

The research on quasi-luminal neutrinos has sparked several experimental studies for testing the "speed of light limit" hypothesis. Until today, the overall evidence favors the "null" hypothesis, stating that there is no significant difference between the observed velocities of light and neutrinos. Despite numerous theoretical models proposed to explain the neutrinos behavior, no attempt has been undertaken to predict the experimentally produced results. This paper presents a simple novel extension of Newton's mechanics to the domain of relativistic velocities. For a typical neutrino-velocity experiment, the proposed model is utilized to derive a general expression for . Comparison of the model's prediction with results of six neutrino-velocity experiments, conducted by five collaborations, reveals that the model predicts all the reported results with striking accuracy. Because in the proposed model, the direction of the neutrino flight matters, the model's impressive success in accounting for all the tested data, indicates a complete collapse of the Lorentz symmetry principle in situation involving quasi-luminal particles, moving in two opposite directions. This conclusion is support by previous findings, showing that an identical Sagnac effect to the one documented for radial motion, occurs also in linear motion.


Author(s):  
Karel Schrijver

This chapter briefly reviews some the challenges encountered in the search for extraterrestrial life. So far, no signs of extraterrestrial life have been found. The search started with radio telescopes, looking for technology-based civilizations, but new strategies have emerged that take on the primary challenges in this search: the enormous distances to exoplanets and the question of the true nature of life. The author outlines the development of new tools for the search, and why the present focus is on Earth-sized exoplanets with a potential for liquid water on their surfaces. Not having been visited by an alien civilization presents us with a paradox: if life develops as quickly elsewhere as on Earth, then why have we not been contacted? Is the speed of light too slow to cross interstellar distances, is life intrinsically rare, or should we conclude that civilizations are intrinsically short-lived?


Author(s):  
Michael H. Whitworth

This chapter examines Oliver Lodge’s popular science book Ether and Reality, which was published in 1925. In it, Oliver Lodge purported to give a non-technical account of the functions of the luminiferous ether. However, Lodge himself had a dilemma, as he wanted the ether to be different from material bodies but not wholly immaterial. Lodge thus needed to present both an account of the ether and an account of a scientific view that was sympathetic to its possible existence. This chapter examines Lodge’s expository strategies in his book. It considers Lodge’s creation of ethos, and the reader that his text implies, paying particular attention to his use of analogy, repetition, parallelism and allusion. It also identifies previously unremarked literary allusions and allusions to the Bible. Finally, as this chapter shows, much of Lodge’s work is done through suggestion and insinuation: Lodge requires the reader to complete his meaning for him.


Author(s):  
Frank S. Levin

Chapter 2 reviews answers to the question of what is light, starting with the ancient Greeks and ending in 1900 with the wave concept of Maxwell’s electrodynamics. For some ancient Greeks, light consisted of atoms emitted from surface of the object, whereas for others it was fire that either entered into or was emitted by eyes, although the latter possibility was effectively eliminated around the year 1000. Competing proposals well after then were that light is either a wave phenomenon or consists of particles, with Isaac Newton’s corpuscular (particle) theory prevailing by the end of the 1600s over the wave concept championed by Christiaan Huygens, who published the first estimate of the speed of light. In the early 1800s, Thomas Young’s two-slit experiment proved that light was a wave, a concept codified and firmly grounded through Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic waves.


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