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“”Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.”
Albert Einstein
eniobob,
That is so true…so true…..but this is the apocalyptic one:
“If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”
my favorite, not sure where it came from:
The other one is….Company is like Fish…after three days they stink…
Einstein proved the speed of light had an upper limit, but not a lower limit. Back about 1925, he posited that if light were passed though extremely cold atoms packed densely, then the light waves would slow down. The technology to actually run the experiment did not appear until 1995.
The blob of ultra-cold atoms, floating in a magnetic field, slowed the light beam down to a 38 mile per hour crawl. They expect further refinement of the equipment will allow them to slow light down to one centimeter per second, which works out to about 120 feet per hour.
This is one of those experiments you probably should not try at home.
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/02.18/light.html
:=)
Don’t forget Satyendra Nath Bose
By the way, would that sticker still appear red if on a car traveling at warp 1?
Otteray Scribe:
“he posited that if light were passed though extremely cold atoms packed densely, then the light waves would slow down.”
that is very interesting, so am I to understand that some light moves through steel and other materials such as wood, concrete, etc at ambient temperatures?
Roco:
The laser beam would not move through steel or concrete at ambient temperatures. They are opaque to light. Radio waves can move through concrete, but not steel (Google “Faraday Cage”). The Bose-Einstein condensate used in the experiment was specially prepared sodium (not the most user friendly stuff in the periodic table) held at temperatures close to those found in deep space.
culheath: My bad. Bose was definitely onto something as well as Einstein. Wouldn’t it have been a treat to have dinner with both of them?
While we are having fun with physics this Saturday morning, how about a little musical interlude? The Masters of Lightning give us a little Bach played on their giant Tesla coils.
AY – the one last came from Benny Franklin as Poor Richard.
I’m afraid dinner with Al & Saty would be well beyond my ability to comprehend no matter how much I want to. Now dinner with Franklin would be a treat – particularly if he brought our dates
Frankly,
Do you mean BRought or BOught? If I recall he did have his penchant with the wittingly elder females:
Because thro’ more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin’d to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.”
http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/franklin.htm
I suppose Ole Benny was a supporter of free trade….
OS
when the light passes through the medium does it retain its reduced speed or does it accelerate back to 186,282 mi/sec.
because if it stays slow it would make a really cool lampshade.
pete, I am afraid it jacks the speed back up to….. c.
The speed that Albert Mickleson and Ed Morley measured back in 1887..
OOPS. I have been watching the Golf Channel on TV and have fat fingers. Mickleson = Michelson
Light of other Days by Bob Shaw.
The short story:
http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/13-TheBestofJimBaensUniverseCD/TheBestofJimBaensUniverseCD/Vol%201%20Num%201/1932093001__17.htm
———–
“This story anticipates the successful creation of Bose-Einstein condensates in 1995. A dilute vapor consisting of approximately 2000 rubidium-87 atoms was cooled to one twenty-billionth Kelvin (not degrees Kelvin – see minor note comments).
Bose-Einstein condensates are created when atoms are cooled to absolute zero; the atoms collapse into the lowest quantum state, producing a superfluid. Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein worked out the details in the 1920′s. The unusual optical properties of BECs were predicted at that time.
Bose-Einstein condensates have optical densities such that the speed of light passing through the mass is extremely low – walking speed as opposed to its usual 186,000 miles per second.”
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=692
In other physics news, dark matter may be an illusion created by gravitational polarization in quantum vacuum. It is an interesting idea.
if the speed of light can be affected than the universe might not be as large as we think.
I’d say the universe is always exactly as large as we think it is.
The known universe, a video visualization by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History:
OS, thanks for the video.
It will only turn blue if the vehicle is moving rapidly towards you. If it is moving away, it will become invisible infrared.
A related comment: Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers (from cars.com and npr) have posed the following question: We know what the speed of light is. But what is the speed of **dark**?