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akshay.wizard
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kindly be descriptive
mr. vodka said:bcrowell - interesting, but I wonder --and it seems pretty important in this discussion-- what were Rindler's axioms?
The snarky answer is "Because." That is the answer given in Einstein's 1905 paper. He postulated that the speed of light is the same to all observers. Remember back to when you were a kid. Some kids pester their parents by repeatedly asking "why?" The parents inevitably get flustered at some point and answer "Because I said so." Think of a postulate as being a scientist's or mathematician's way of saying "Because I said so."A Dhingra said:But why is the speed of light the constant why not any other speed?
Occam's razor.And why is this perception rejected?D H said:Looking at relativity from the perspective of length contraction and time dilation being the cause, and a constant speed of light the effect, is a long-since rejected notion.
That was a thought that also occurred to scientists of the time. They tried many variations at different altitudes, with different amounts of matter nearby, etc. Nothing made any difference.new_r said:What about possible ether dragging proportionally to gravitational force (or maybe proportionally to gravitation energy density) + Lorentz contraction together?
In this way famous MMX becomes unable to measure anything.
tiny-tim said:hi akshay.wizard! welcome to pf!
the structure (the metric) of space-time has a preferred speed
anything with that speed in one frame will have the same speed in all frames
light happens to travel at that speed
The speed of light, denoted by the letter "c", is considered to be the fastest possible speed according to the theory of relativity. This is because the speed of light is a fundamental constant in the universe and it is impossible for any object with mass to reach or exceed this speed.
The speed of light appears to be the same for all observers, regardless of their relative motion. This is due to the principle of relativity, which states that the laws of physics should be the same for all observers in uniform motion. Therefore, the speed of light must remain constant in all reference frames as it is a fundamental property of the universe.
The constancy of the speed of light is a crucial part of the theory of relativity, which is one of the fundamental theories in physics. It has many implications for our understanding of space, time, and the nature of the universe. It also helps to explain many phenomena, such as time dilation and length contraction, that occur at high speeds.
The constancy of the speed of light was first demonstrated by the famous Michelson-Morley experiment in the late 19th century. This experiment aimed to measure the difference in the speed of light in different directions, assuming that the Earth was moving through a stationary ether. However, the results showed no difference in the speed of light, leading to the conclusion that the speed of light is constant in all directions and reference frames.
According to our current understanding of physics, the speed of light is a constant in all reference frames. However, there are some theories, such as string theory, that suggest the possibility of a varying speed of light at the very early stages of the universe. This is still a topic of ongoing research and has not been confirmed by any experimental evidence.