From: Martin Ling (martin@nodezero.org.uk)
Date: Sun Jun 18 2000 - 16:14:45 MDT
On Sun, Jun 18, 2000 at 05:34:48PM -0400, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
> Alejandro Dubrovsky wrote:
> >
> > AFAIK (and i'm not a physicist, or anywhere near), option (b) won't give
> > you anything at all. The speed of light in the relativistic equations
> > is the speed of light in a vacuum not in the local medium.
>
> In that case, the relativistic equations are irrelvant to this universe,
> since there is no place where there is an absolute vacuum. If you allow
> that they work in normal space (which has a few atoms per cubic cm of
> space), then they should work in any gas, fluid, or solid.
That's not the point. The value of c in the relativistic equations is
that of the speed of light in a vacuum. Nowhere is it ever suggested
that this speed is ever attained or that the effects of the equations
are dependent upon the speed of light in whichever medium is being
worked with. The value of c, although it turns out to be the speed of
light in a vacuum, is more than simply that. It is the square root of
the constant relating energy and matter in E=mc^2, for one, before we
even begin to deal with its relevance in space/time.
Martin
-- -----[ Martin J. Ling ]-----[ http://www.nodezero.org.uk ]-----
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