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quade

Do you believe light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second?

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In what medium?

/Marg



Beat me to it. I say yes, but not under water. :P
So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

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I say yes, but not under water. :P



Any medium should slow it, including Bose Einstein Condensates (BECs).


This fabulous -- im-ever-ho -- physicist at Harvard, Lene Hau, used BECs to stop light, reported earlier this year in Nature: "Coherent control of optical information with matter wave dynamics."
Btw: her research was sponsored by the Air Force (AFOSR). :)
There have also been some, thus far disputed claims, about moving packets of light (usually in Cesium gas) faster than light.

There's also "spooktechnology" - negative index of refraction materials ... being explored for cryptographic and quantum computing applications. One leading researcher, Duke's David Smith is funded by DARPA, ONR, AFOSR, & ARO.
:$

VR/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

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> Do you believe light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second?

Why? Just because the so-called "consensus" says that? I think it's all a plot to destroy the US economy by getting people to invest in worthless devices like "fiber optics" and whatnot. Why, I found half a dozen real scientists to sign a petition saying the speed of light can be slower than that!

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Just curious. ;)



The correct question is

Do you believe that 186280 miles equals one second?

Humans distinguish between time and space only because
they're slow and their brains are hyperbolically challenged.

Cheers, T
*******************************************************************
Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true

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Yes, give or take 454,474 m/s

(But only because the meter is defined as the distance light travels in 1/299792458 of a second, and there is a known constant conversion factor from miles to meters.)
Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

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Yes, it is a constant. The speed of light is exactly 2 pi times the speed of dark.



No it is, and always has been, 186,000 miles per second in a vacuum, except during the 1973 Arab oil embargo, when Congress temporarily reduced it to 55,000 miles per second to save energy.:D
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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Yes, it is a constant. The speed of light is exactly 2 pi times the speed of dark.



No it is, and always has been, 186,000 miles per second in a vacuum, except during the 1973 Arab oil embargo, when Congress temporarily reduced it to 55,000 miles per second to save energy.:D


By Congress, you mean the same pantywaists who couldn't stand up to the whiners demanding that alcohol be made illegal?

It's a good thing without alcohol, it became intolerable to listen to them in a few short years.

Wishy-washy.

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I'm more with the school of thought that says it travels at aprox 300,000 metres/sec:P



Hmm... so the speed of light depends on whether it's upside down or not. Interesting. You should call the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. They might give you a prize. :D:P;)

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In what medium?

/Marg



Sylvia Browne. How fast does it travel thru Sylvia Browne?
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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I'm more with the school of thought that says it travels at aprox 300,000 metres/sec:P



Seeing as the more usually accepted speed of light is 299 792 458 m/s, or almost 1000 times faster than what your school of thought says, there must be something in the ether Down Under that makes light slow down quite a bit there?

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In what medium?

/Marg



Sylvia Browne. How fast does it travel thru Sylvia Browne?


I torn here; Would the speed of light in a vacuum apply, or would it in fact be the speed of light in the most dense matter known to man?:S
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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