OT: Alien Contact

[Mephisto]

I don't know exactly about the SoL thing but there are many pages out there. Try this one:

http://www.what-is-the-speed-of-ligh...ive-index.html

[Suicide Junkie]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
No, light has constant velocity. Different wavelengths travel at marginally different speeds, but it is all constant. Light seeming to slow down in water and such is an optical illusion.

Same thing.
The initial wavefront moving thorugh the material goes right through at the speed of light.
The interference from the secondary EM waves generated by the atoms jostled by the main wave adds up to produce a new wave whos peaks and valleys change position slower than you'd expect.

Look at standing waves on a rope as a slowed down example. You start waving the rope (attached to a wall or a friend on the other side)
You see a succession of waves travel down the rope, hit the wall, and then reflect back, and start to interfere with the later waves you made.
When the two waves interfere in the rope, the total result is a wave that looks like it isn't moving at all.
The energy is still moving along at the normal speed, but the interference causes the illusion of slower (or faster (!)) velocities.
Given appropriate conditions, you can actually make the wave peaks appear to "travel" faster than C, but the far side of the apparatus will not light up until enough time has passed for a beam at speed C to travel the length of the apparatus.

[Fyron]

Why the heck does Atrocities keep creating threads that spiral out of control?

[Ragnarok]

The Christian God (and all other religions) is a creation of mankind to explain things that we can not explain otherwise.

So you're saying there is no God? That mankind made Him up? All you have to do is look around, look at the evidence, look through his Word (the Bible), and it is plain as day that there is a God.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:

quote:

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Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
No, light has constant velocity. Different wavelengths travel at marginally different speeds, but it is all constant. Light seeming to slow down in water and such is an optical illusion.

Same thing.
The initial wavefront moving thorugh the material goes right through at the speed of light.
The interference from the secondary EM waves generated by the atoms jostled by the main wave adds up to produce a new wave whos peaks and valleys change position slower than you'd expect.

Look at standing waves on a rope as a slowed down example. You start waving the rope (attached to a wall or a friend on the other side)
You see a succession of waves travel down the rope, hit the wall, and then reflect back, and start to interfere with the later waves you made.
When the two waves interfere in the rope, the total result is a wave that looks like it isn't moving at all.
The energy is still moving along at the normal speed, but the interference causes the illusion of slower (or faster (!)) velocities.
Given appropriate conditions, you can actually make the wave peaks appear to "travel" faster than C, but the far side of the apparatus will not light up until enough time has passed for a beam at speed C to travel the length of the apparatus.

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Finally, someone joining the conversation that knows more physics than I do instead of someone that knows less.

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Why the heck does Atrocities keep creating threads that spiral out of control?

He's just good at it.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Ragnarok:

quote:

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The Christian God (and all other religions) is a creation of mankind to explain things that we can not explain otherwise.

So you're saying there is no God? That mankind made Him up? All you have to do is look around, look at the evidence, look through his Word (the Bible), and it is plain as day that there is a God.

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From the smiley, I conclude that that is meant as a joke. Otherwise...