fred (04/28/83)
This might better be posed in net.sf but I was wondering the other night, suppose that the speed of light was say 100 or 1000 times faster than it is, how would that alter our universe. Would it force the stars to be spread out more or could just that constant be changed an leave the rest of what we know about the universe untouched? Fred (American Bell/Indy)
mat (04/29/83)
Well, if the speed of light were increased, then a lot of things related
to electromagnetism would have to change also. Thie first example that
comes to mind is this little relationship:
____1____
c = ________________
v/ u * e
0 0
where e is an epsilon, and u is a mu.
In other words, the inverse of
the square root of
the product of
the permeability and permittivity of
free space
equals the speed of light
( actually electromagnetic propagation )
in free space.
Since the permeability and permittitivity of free space influence directly
bulk inductance and capacitance fo free space, and since materials tend
to track the free-space values within a few orders of magnitude, we might
have to build a lot of our machines differently.
In addition, since
c = f * (lambda)
where lambda is wavelength and f is frequency, we would find a lot of our
optical systems fouled up. (This is not unrelated to the permeability/
permittivity question). Now we have screwed up the photo-electric effect,
and we will have to tinker with Plank's constant to make it all work
again. After that, I believe, we might have to revise Boltzman's constant
to meke (statistical) chemistry work out again. From there, it is a
short step to the Reynold's number for the various types of flow,
and I can eventually see a devaluation of the dollar, the franc, and the
pound against the ruble. No, we had better leave ``c'' alone.
Seen in a men's room:
and God said:
________________________
/ \
/ Insert Maxwell's \
/ equations in differential \
| form here, along with the |
\ required continutity eq- /
\ uations in the matching/
\ form. /
\_____________________/
AND THERE WAS LIGHT
Mark Terribile
Duke of DeNet
-!hou5e!matsmh (04/30/83)
This probably belongs in net.jokes, but it's short, and I couldn't resist.
Down the hall there is a sign posted by someone in the Radio Astonomy Group:
C
It's not just a good idea,
it's the law!
sorry.........jonab (05/03/83)
If the speed of light were 100 times the current value, then interesting things would happen to light itself. The energy in a photom can be written as: E = ( h * c ) / lamda, where h is Plank's constant and lamda is the wavelength of the photon. This would mean that light in the far infared region would have as much energy as visible light used to. Visible light would shift to the hard ultraviolet or x-ray region. This could cause great problems with sight and cause general havoc with the environment. Also, because c is related to the electro-magnetic force, many things would not wordk the way they used to. Capacitances would differ, and I doubt that computers would work as they stand now. The force that holds molecules together would also change, causeing a contraction or expansion of all matter. It might even preclude molecular bonding altogether!!???!! This article is the result of about 10 minutes speculation, and I do not doubt that there are more effects than this. Jon Biggar
jlg (05/10/83)
If the speed of light changed by itself, there would indeed be changes
in the physics of our universe. But the real question is "can the speed of
light be different than it is?" This is related to the problem of unified
field, something I am not qualified to remark upon.
J.L. Giles
(...!utah-cs!lanl-a!jlg)