Can Light Speed Be Increased by Straightening Its Wave Path?

[zuz]

If light travels in a wave, couldn't we "speed it up" by making it travel in a straight line?

 

[russ_watters]

Can you do that with sound, or any wave? Sorry, but the idea doesn't really make sense (and light isn't really a wave anyway).

 

[Dale]

If light travels in a wave, couldn't we "speed it up" by making it travel in a straight line?

The waves are variations in the field vectors, not wiggles in the position. It travels in a straight line already

 

[zuz]

Can you do that with sound, or any wave? Sorry, but the idea doesn't really make sense (and light isn't really a wave anyway).

I don't know. that's why I'm asking you. It seems like a fundamental question to me. Why can't we/any alien race do it?

 

[Dale]

Why can't we/any alien race do it?

See post 3

 

[Baluncore]

If light travels in a wave, couldn't we "speed it up" by making it travel in a straight line?

Only the electric and the magnetic fields oscillate either side of zero. The energy in the wave already travels in a straight line that is called the Poynting vector.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poynting_vector

 

[weirdoguy]

that's why I'm asking you.

How about doing your own reasearch beforehand? You ask questions that can be answered by just basic google search. But as I see in your posting history, you prefere to throw those questions here. And that's not how PF works, at least in principle, because of course there will always be someone who answer those basic questions for you. But it's more about your attitude.

 

[Ibix]

If light travels in a wave, couldn't we "speed it up" by making it travel in a straight line?

The distance along a sine wave depends on the frequency of the wave (a fact you should recognise, since a very low frequency wave is very near the straight line you want), so if your idea wasn't based on a misconception of what a light wave is (see #3 and #6) light speed would depend on frequency under all circumstances. That is not the case in vacuum - which is enough to tell you that your mental model of light is wrong.

As others have commented, a light wave does not involve anything moving up and down - it's oscillating field vectors.

 

[zuz]

Thank you.

 

[A.T.]

If light travels in a wave, couldn't we "speed it up" by making it travel in a straight line?

If you straighten out a transverse wave, then you have no wave, and thus no light.

 

[weirdoguy]

If you straighten out a transverse wave

And what does that mean?

 

[zuz]

Only the electric and the magnetic fields oscillate either side of zero. The energy in the wave already travels in a straight line that is called the Poynting vector.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poynting_vector

Thank you.