i reject the idea that light has any part to play in the way the universe works, the idea is silly and chiuldlike IMO.
I KNOW that his theories are full of holes and i also know that instead of looking at what actually exists, people try and prove his theories by twisting things to work.
can anyone tell me why light would be so important, if we saw the world through radio waves would radio waves then be the speed barrier of the universe? is there more to light being chosen of radio waves than we see by it?
I'll do my best to clear these details up for you. To hopefully establish some credibility beforehand, since you probably haven't seen me around here much, I am an undergraduate electrical engineering student in my junior year. Beyond the required introductory physics courses, I have also taken a class in modern physics and a lab session in which we tested the concepts of the lecture. I earned As in both the lab and the lecture.
I also want to mention that I'm not going to go into much depth here because if you want to read a book you'll go to the library. I'm just going to touch on the details that you seem to be confused about.
First, you asked about light. You are somewhat correct in that light, typically defined as the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum, is not really special. You also mentioned radio waves. Light and radio waves are in fact the same thing and move at the exact same speed. Microwaves, radio waves, light, UV, gamma rays, and all other waves you hear about (with the exception of mechanical vibrations, ie sound waves, water ripples, etc) are all electromagnetic radiation. The difference between the waves is their wavelength, and therefore, frequency. Despite all the fancy names given to different frequency bands, all electromagnetic radiation is the same stuff - pure energy that moves both as a wave and as a particle. The term photon refers not only to light, but also to all electromagnetic radiation. Also, when people speak of "c" being the speed of light (2.998x10^8 m/s), they are actually referring to the speed of electromagnetic radiation because it all moves at the same speed. Light in itself is not special, it's just much shorter to say. So when scientists talk about the speed of light, don't limit your definition to the visible spectrum, because the same concepts refer to all frequencies of electromagnetic radiation.
It might be difficult to understand why electromagnetic radiation is important if you don't have a firm understanding of classical physics beforehand. Basically, Einstein states that the speed of light (the speed of electromagnetic radiation, c) is the absolute fastest speed that can be achieved, and in order to get there, you need to have zero mass. In other words, light moves at this speed because it has no mass and is entirely energy. More specifically, Einstein defines the relationship between mass, energy, and the speed of light (E=mc^2). If you doubt the idea that only zero mass can reach c, I give you the example of a positron (beta+ radioactive decay particle). Positrons have nearly zero mass (9x10^-31 kg) yet move at only .9c.
One example I can give as to why this is all important to you would be with computers. The frequency and therefore bandwidth of any data bus is limited by the speed of light. If you were to take the physical length of the data bus, and based upon the operational clock speed, determine how fast data the data were moving, you would find that it is limited at an atomic/electron level by the speed of light. Similarly, fiber optic lines are popular over electrical lines for long-distance data transmission because it is the only way to actually move data at the speed of light. Actually, it isn't the only way, because radio transmissions are the same idea. The difference is that a radio transmision uses the air as a dielectric to carry the signal, whereas fiber optics use a transparent dielectric cable to carry the signal. Coax RF lines (ie cable tv) operate on the exact same principle as well, except they use a different polymer plastic dielectric to carry the signal.
As for Einstein's the theories being full of holes, I'm not so sure about that. You may be able to find holes in modern research that is attempting to expand Einstein's theories. However, much of Einstein's work is taken as fact simply because it can be proven in both lab and real-world scenarios.
Take the GPS satellites that many people receive data from daily as an example. Those satellites work by transmitting a signals with absolute timestamps, and your receiver compares the timestamps to the known time in order to triangulate your position. According to Einstein, such a system should generate an integral error since time will be dilated for the satellite but not for the receiver. When scientists built the first GPS satellites, they designed them with compensatory circuitry just in case Einstein was right, but left it disabled initially. At first the system worked fine, but after a couple days it was off by miles (integral error accumulates and therefore grows). When they activated time-dilation correction, the system worked flawlessly. EVERY GPS satellite today uses correction based on the concept of time dilation and most people don't even know it.
Another example using GPS, is speed checking. Were you aware that when your GPS unit reports a movement velocity, it is calculating that number from the electromagnetic dopler shift of the data packet it received?
There is the possibility that you've never used a GPS unit before, so here's an example that you can definitely relate to. I am 99.9% confident that you have used a microwave oven at least once in you life. Do you know why it is safe to stand near a microwave when it is cooking? It's because of the metal grille on the viewing door. The holes in the grille are smaller than the wavelength of the microwaves, therefore the waves are incapable of passing through the grille. In my modern physics lab, one of our projects was to measure the wavelength of a light source using the diffraction angle through a micro-scale grille of known aperture size. Even under our crude lab conditions it worked, so these concepts are verifiable.
Hope this all clears some things up for you. If you have more questions I will gladly try to answer them.
Excellent, CapnBFG!!! Congrats! :trophy: :trophy: :trophy: :trophy: :trophy:
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