Speed of Light?
Russell Garber ( (no email) )
Wed, 11 Aug 1999 18:48:25 -0400
Please bear with me as sometimes if you think about one thing to long,
non-sense starts to make sense and vice-versa, but I have never completely
understood about the Speed of Light being constant. Before going into
details, I will explain a bit about what I mean. My understanding of this
is that it is stated that the speed of light is constant in all frames. I
will give an example to what I mean by all frames using the old person
riding on train example: A person riding in a train moving at say, 50 mph
(the actual speed doesn't really matter) throws a baseball towards the
front of the train at say, 50 mph. To other people on the train the ball
obviously is moving at 50 mph, but to a person outside the train (on the
ground not moving) the two speeds add together, and the ball is thus
travelling near 100 mph. In contrast to this, with the speed of light
being constant, the speed observed by the people on the train <----- (for
simplicity sake, lets say that the person on the train had a laser pen, and
the train was filled with a substance so as the beam could be seen, and
that the speed of light was slow enough to by observed by the naked eye...
I know it is a lot to ask, but it doesn't really make a difference, because
the speed is constant, and the result would be the same, right?) ----->
would be exactly the same that was observed by the person on the ground.
Can someone explain the reason for this without statements such as:
Modern Physics, etc. are based on this and it works out in the
calculations, etc... and other statements such as that, that don't really
explain anything, at least not in terms easily understandable. Also, in
the actual speed of light calculations done, was Earth's rotation speed
taken into account? Wouldn't the actual speed of light be that which was
measured here on Earth, plus partially the speed of Earth's rotation on
it's axis, plus partially the speed that Earth is travelling around the
sun, plus partially the speed that our Solar System is moving through the
galaxy, etc...? Has any speed of light measurement ever been done in
space? Has any speed of light measurements been done on moving platforms,
with the speed taken in two different frames, that can prove this? This
has always confused me, and most likely because we are always told, that it
just is, and that we have to accept it, and thus never being explained in
easily understood terms. Can someone please explain this using the
out-of-the-ordinary thinking that is present on this web site, in lay mans
terms? And please, only stick to the point, and don't pick apart the
nature of the examples given, etc, as it does not help. Thanks in advance
for your help.