Insights Blog
-- Browse All Articles --
Physics Articles
Physics Tutorials
Physics Guides
Physics FAQ
Math Articles
Math Tutorials
Math Guides
Math FAQ
Education Articles
Education Guides
Bio/Chem Articles
Technology Guides
Computer Science Tutorials
Forums
Trending
Featured Threads
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Menu
Log in
Register
Navigation
More options
Contact us
Close Menu
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Forums
Physics
Classical Physics
Optics
Measurement of the Speed of light
Reply to thread
Message
[QUOTE="PeterDonis, post: 5908874, member: 197831"] This is more correctly phrased as: if the photon were not a strictly massless particle, then the speed of light in vacuum would not be precisely equal to the invariant speed--the speed which is the same in all reference frames. The speed of light in vacuum would instead be variable, always lower than the invariant speed, but it would be possible in principle (though not necessarily likely in practice) to find a reference frame in which a photon was at rest. In other words, our usual terminology, which refers to the invariant speed as "the speed of light", assumes that photons are massless; if that assumption were to turn out to be wrong, the correct response would be to change our usual terminology, so that it would draw a clear distinction between the speed of light and the invariant speed. If there were any. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Post reply
Forums
Physics
Classical Physics
Optics
Measurement of the Speed of light
Back
Top