Scientists Determine Photons Can Travel No Faster Than The Speed of Light

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but surely "the speed of light is the speed of light" shouldn't exactly be shocking news...

Light doesn't travel faaster than light?!?!?

Oh my god! Now that's something!

...

yah, i was thinking the same thing, didn't even realize this was being debated, cool stuff regardless

Is it just me or do they seem to be jumping to conclusions? Sure, they may have proven that faster than light travel is impossible, but how does that prove time travel is also not possible? Have they considered there might be some other way of traveling through time that does not involve faster than light travel?

I remain skeptical on principle. I've always been taught that there are two definitions to the speed of light. One definition was the actual velocity of photons in a vaccuum, "c". The other definition is the theoretical maximum velocity in the universe, which is more of a metaphysical concept than a value.

The second definition has plenty of relatvaistic implications but I've always understood that the concept was flexible based on what we observe and could be changed based off experiments done in the future. It seems to me, by the way the article is worded, that the scientists reconfirmed the value of "c" and did not change our understanding of the theoretical maximum.

Also, doesn't that only mean that they weren't able to make the photon go faster than the speed of light? Maybe there's still some way of doing it...

I thought China put a stop to anything time travel related. Looks like someone broke the law.

This new experiments don't answer some of the spooky aspects of quantum physics, entanglement -- Einstein himself called it spooky. In 2008 entangled photons communications has been clocked at 10,000 times the speed of light.

Quantum weirdness wins again: Entanglement clocks in at 10,000+ times faster than light

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=quantum-weirdnes-wins-again-entangl-2008-08-13

Ron Bennett

Agreed - I mean, when was the last time you heard anyone talk about time travel via FTL in space? Modern science fiction, as well as modern physicists, continue to explore the concept through wormhole travel, bending space/time so that you don't have to travel through the vacuum of space. I don't think this author actually reads science fiction.

Or science.

http://www.baileypoint.com

Ron, quantum entanglement doesn't speak to time travel or even FTL travel - merely FTL communication.

http://www.baileypoint.com

lmbo @ joey

Ah humanity! You have so much to learn. We know that basically everything is some form of electro-magnetic radiation. Everything from light to radio waves. We also know that "spooky action at a distance" works, somehow. Its also known as quantum entanglement and regardless the distance paired atoms will mimic each other. This either suggests (1) the existence of super-luminal radiation OR (2) the atoms are in some way adjacent and instantly exchanging energy as in a Newton's Cradle. In this case though, our ideas of "distance" and therefore "motion" would need a serious rethink.

Either way, it shatters the concept of "nothing faster than light." And if we can figure out which of those two cases is true, we will own the stars my dear Horatio.

@ SolusCado

Nobody knows exactly how/why quantum entanglement works. But I suspect it has something to do with negating the effects of "time." If true, we might learn how to apply this effect to ship and viola, FTL drives.

Remember, no one will ever fly in a heavier-than-air craft. No one will ever travel faster than the speed of sound. No one will ever fly in outer space. No one will ever set foot on the Moon.
Just keep telling the human race what it cannot do, and it will keep on doing it.

even if quantum entanglement can't be used to make faster than light propulsion, there is still an interesting consequence to time.

we can agree that time is running forward correct? for the sake of argument let's just say, yes, time is moving forward.

so how can we know when something is running backwards in time if we are running forwards? it would blink into existence for less than an instant and then disappear just as quickly.

or if we are trying to move something back in time then wouldn't it seem to just sit there? even though it's technically moving back in time? because once it goes forward in time again then it's making the same trip it did the first time.

this doesn't disprove time travel, and it doesn't disprove faster than light propulsion. this just kills the idea of doing it with light as the main power. and that's at best.

to mars or bust!

ftl travel will be achieved eventually. scientist also used to claim earth was the center of the universe and that the sun was guy in a chariot. saying it cant be done simply mean you've given up trying. 200 years ago man road horses, now we have satellites and space stations. imagine what the next 1000 years will see!

tap your watch and step into a new dimension and walk out onto another planet on the other side of the galaxy. fantasy yes....for now

I bet " Srinivasa Ramanujan " would have a different opinion about time travel!

I get the feeling that any time traveling humanity might do in the distant future would have less to do with the speed of light and more with the manipulation of spacetime itself. Maybe if you could find a way to turn spacetime back on itself or something, you'd be able to make time run backwards... or something like that. Granted, that's just a random idea that no basis whatsoever in reality, though it would still be cool if we could fold spacetime like a piece of fabric. I would think a technology like that would allow us to take shortcuts through spacetime, making it more useful for interstellar or even intergalactic travel than time travel. Oh well, maybe if science finds a way to make us immortal before I die of old age, I'll live to see that day. :P

A hem! Research this name " Srinivasa Ramanujan ". Absolute brilliant thinker!

There is an interesting time traveling phenomenon called the doppelganger in which the future self returns to the present. According to the eyewitnesses, of whom I am one also, there is a time difference of just less than 15 minutes which I will call 875.195556 seconds.

The future self moves out of the time line at pi/2, goes back in time with another two right angles for a total angle of 3pi/2. There has to be the tetrahedron angle of sin(19.47122063) which is a factor of 1/3. So the factor is
1/3 * 3pi/2= pi/2.

Because the geometry is logarithmic, the value we are looking for is the factor times the time interval times the speed of light in this dimension or
ln(pi/2 * 875.1957556 s * 299792458 m/s * 1/m) =
26.74463127

Thus e^-26.74463127) = 2.426354299^-12 meters
which is the electron wavelength.

In my case, a woman who was dressed in purple, a Catholic tradition on Good Friday for the sorrow of Jesus, was at a candle-light procession several miles away at 6:30 PM. About 15 minutes later, she had to sit down on a park bench due to an extreme headache.

I went to the restaurant at 7:00 PM to check on our reservation for 7:30 PM. The waitress surprised me by saying that the woman was just there at the restaurant and had spoken to her. I told her that was impossible because she was in the procession with a purple blouse.

When I returned at 7:30, the woman came in dressed in a red dress.

Also, around this time, a man, who was at home studying for a medical exam, was seen at the casino playing the Volcano machine.

So time travel is possible, as evidenced by the Billy Meier photographs of the dinosaurs. I also know that a glitch in the electronics of the Pleiadian Beamship sent two crews back in time. Upon rescuing them, the crew appeared moving very slowly in a time dilation event.

So when scientists make these declarations that time travel is impossible, we know better. We have the triple toroidal waveguide that produces a linear gear tooth time wave, the time warp generator where plants are grow fast compared to the control, the germination of a seed into leaves while held in the hand snd other examples.

SolusCado yea but:

So the quandary of what is information which two entangled particle transmit from one photon to the other over 10,000 times the speed of light. I am communication with you at a much slower speed through the invent of the internet my binary numbers talking to your binary numbers right now. With a 3D printer I can take information at my end and communicate to you and make a 3D plastic object from my corner of the Earth to yours, if you had a 3D printer, just by communication with your 3D printer. Of course it will take time to reassemble that information into a 3D object but if your thousands of light years away then that time is infinitesimally small compared to the time it would take to travel there, even if you were traveling close to light speeds. In other words I can take information from a AutoCad object in 3D space at my place and make a 3D object with mass at your place.

A Quantum computer, scientist have been working on for the last ten years, with entangled photons should be able to take the communication from two entangled connections and do the same thing over 10,000 times faster than the speed of light. As a result a clone of an object sent though a quantum entangled communication link 10,000 times the speed of light can be reassembled with mass at great distances -- it is though mass is traveling over 10,000 times the speed of light???

Ron Bennett

I love that you all beat me to the quantum entanglement subject. My thoughts exactly, love the idea of using it with a 3d printer rlb2. In theory we could build much more advanced 3d printers, such as the star trek "replicators" and print ourselves out on the other end :) ...lets just hope bad guys don't use this haha *shudders at agent smith flashback from matrix*

Beam me up Scotty. 1134 just think what an advanced Organic 3D printer can do, taking the organic soup and first make stem cells then from there assembling a human being thousands of light years away, just from the transmission of information through space.

Ron Bennett

There is no need to transmit the information when the actual person can be teleported to the location through the subspace tetrahedral logarithmic manifold that connects all regions of space-time.

Communication in real time is easily accomplished out to 80,000 light years through this manifold.

I don't believe in Chinese researchers because they tend to bend physics to their Buddhist beliefs. We know that the speed of light in other dimensions is as low as 1 m/s. Thus there are other hyperspace co-dimensions that have a faster speed of light.

The Grey aliens liken the situation to a dam filled with water. If you are submerged in the middle, then the speed of light is faster or slower than yours. So there has to be a faster speed of light in a higher co-dimension which I don't think these researchers considered.

It doesn't matter though because spacecraft teleport from one location to another in less time that it takes to walk across the street. So our light speed is not a factor in the teleportation.

Recently the NSA confiscated a book about ancient Greek gods which apparently showed a picture of the Parthenon as it was in ancient times, not the rubble as it is now. The picture shows that time travel is possible.

I hate to use the word but the"mathematics"of the Theory of Relativity predicts not the speed of light but the maximum universal speed of a "massless particle", of which the photon is one of. In the formula E=mc^2, the c is a convenient contraction sort of like the formula for a right triangle c^2 = a^2 + b^2 is a convenient contraction of the Law of Sines.

Jerry B.

I just thought of a question I would really like answered.

Why does light travel slower through some mediums? Does it lose energy while in there? Does it get the energy back once it returns to a high speed medium? And if it gets the energy back, how the fuck?

There is information without inetia and therefore not limited by the speed of light such as is entanglement. As soon as we can confirm what causes gravity we will know what limits the speed of light and therefore should be able to manipulate it. Whatever creates inertia also causes gravity. Maybe someday soon we will find our god particle.
Till then we can only measure with what we can see; electromagnetic radiation. WHICH IS ALSO AFFECTED BY INERTIA. Seems like a tangled web we weave. By the way, time is not a fact just a concept which cannot be observed.
We can only measure changes in relative existence in relationship to a standard. This standard is always based on some photonic phenomena or decay. You measure relativity with this physical property you will always set this as the limit of existence which in actuality has no limits. It is very hard to quantify things we cannot measure. Presently we can only measure phenomena that has inertia. If we someday think outside the box we may see things we never imagined and understand the actual fabric of what we call existence. Scientists must get into the non physical part of the universe to truly understand how it manipulates the physical. One set of observations is a very arrogant way to profess as hard fact that the speed of light is the ultimate rate at which relative existence can change.

Light doesn't travel at a lower speed through a medium. You need to take a page from Feynman.

He said that a photon does not reflect off a surface at equal angles. Actually, the photon is absorbed by the medium and then emitted again. The emitted photons are in phase and reinforce each other if the angles are the same. Thus it appears as though the photon bounces off the surface at equal angles. Many photon negatively reinforce and hence cancel in other directions.

So the explanation is that the photon is absorbed and emitted by the medium which creates a delay in the transmission, but the photon still travels at the speed of light in the vacuum between the atoms.

@frong...i was wondereing when someone would mention manipulating space/time, this is how the future will cheat the speed of light by creating shortcuts to travel vast distances, it appears that the speed of light is a constant, all modern physics proves this, Einstien was convinced of this even though spooky actions at the quantum level unsettled him, entanglement could just be connections we don't understand, like a very long train playing tug of war that we cannot see, just as we can't see dark energy but it appears to exist, cheers

@ Johnstclair. Just a guess, schizophrenia? If you say no then i think you need to see a doctor. Lol. Could you post your occupation? Just curious. Need to know where to get a job if I lose it.(my mind). What exactly would you consider your area of expertise? Obviously my major is much too serious. Mech eng tech. I will say you put a hell of a lot of effort into your comments.

please don't feed the trolls, i just skip past his comments and bubbanuts

@drchuck1, you so desire and want attention and are afraid to learn.

Well humans are a creative bunch and can figure pretty much anything out. And I don't see that will stop. At least until the machines take over in 2029.

drchuck1, someone had to say it! been thinking it for a long time!

I have always assumed light really travels in nether (small particles trillions times small than quarks).
The speed of light would be linked to its density.
Its density may be the same in our galaxy, differ elsewhere.
Our vaccum is full of this dark mass and its motion (dark energy).

The Salmanians wrote of people from the stars. The south and north american indians spoke or people from the stars. The egyptions wrote and believe in people from the stars. The people from the country of India wrote and spoke about people from the stars. The people of china wrote of beings coming down from the sky on dragons. The native africians have stories about people from the stars. " drchuck1,strange009 just continue living in your McDonalds Happy Meal world, next to your mainstream Walmart Ideas ", its fine for you and you are happy! Take care and god bless you!

@dditto2 - If you know someone who has schizophrenia, then check out my 3-hour 2006 lecture called "The Chi Energy Amplifier." This hyperspace energy amplifier will boost the person's energy field. Having a larger field will keep the person from leaving his body by creating a larger light-cord spring constant between the physical body and the energy body.

The DVD can be obtained from psychotronics.org in Kentucky. It was voted best lecture at the conference.

You might also get the "Martial Arts and Hyperspace Physics" lecture which shows how to levitate the body.

My patent application "The Chi Energy Amplifier" shows how to build and use the amplifier. It requires a small kiln, clay, hemispherical clay mold, a frequency generator, coax cable and slot antenna made of electronic copper.

By boosting your energy, you can then become an energy healer to treat health conditions such as MS, Abducens disease, diabetes, lower back pain and shingles.

The gentleman in this picture is trying to move a Chess piece. Does he not realize he is about to be shot with a powerful laser. OH MY GOD!!!!!!! lol

i swear, every nut job that visits this site posts their random thoughts without any thought on any evidence that supports these thoughts, when actually it is obvious bullshi# that anyone with half a brain would be embarressed to share, but with the anonymity these blogs have, people are empowered to be idiots, the normal response here to critism is "but we once thought the world was flat", that doesn't mean any idea has merit, the idea the world was flat was not proven wrong by random bullshi#, but by science, please think before you post...ok bubbanuts, add some more

@drchuck1..... you drinking again? look up the science digest website.. take a look. no blogging and commenting allowed. you be happy their, i promise. wow, either to much drinking, or not enough, maybe he needs fiber,. you sphincter is rather tight there guy; your all just puckered up!

It's not too surprising to learn that the maximum speed of light in a vacuum is still c. But, what are the consequences of meta-materials with an index of refraction of zero?

A meta-material with a zero index of refraction can only be obtained if the speed of light in that medium is *infinite*! Is information also being transmitted at infinite speeds? Could a Tardis-like device be made of such hypothetical materials?

I'm not being serious about the Tardis. But, I'd like to know the answer to the former question.

@BubbaGump...and yours is just the opposite

Question maybe some1 can help me with this,if light is only a part of the elctormagnet spectrum,at what wave lenght are we measuring the speed of light at. Seeing how light has many wave lenghts do they all travel at the same speed.Also if light is easly bent by gravity (gravitaional lensing), and now were finding that were suronded by a froth of magnetic bubbles wouldnt our view of whats out their be tanted as well and in the spectrum light is only a part,so their are other waves that preceed light,radiation,and Nadion particles,tetrions and lord knows what else so if light is so easily manipulated (they've even slowed the darn thing down by using gas) how is it a accurate constant..

The speed of light is the square root of the inverse of the linear inductance of space times the linear capacitance of space.

It seems possible to reduce the linear capacitance of space so that the speed of light is increased. Capacitance can be decreased by placing the capacitors in series.

Notice that Billy Meier's photograph of the edge of the spacecraft shows a series of flat plates connected in series around the circumference. Thus there is a decreased series capacitance per length around the circumference. Thus the aliens are increasing the photon light speed around the craft along the periphery.

The so-called windows on alien spacecraft are not actually windows but radial microwave waveguides. Thus they emit microwaves through the vertical plates of the capacitors.

Rather than being fixed voltages on the capacitors, imagine that they are subjected to an oscillating voltage. This creates an electric field between the plates. What you have then is a microwave beam interacting with an oscillating electric field.

This interaction creates negative energy density. The negative energy creates wormholes between space and hyperspace such that low-density low-speed-of-light hyperspace energy flows into the capacitors. This is the misty white cloud seen over the hulls. It is also seen as wavy space-time due to the lowered spring constant of space as seen on the sides of the black triangles.

The spring constant of space, force/length, is the linear mass of the universe times the speed of light squared divided by the Planck scale. Hyperspace has a low linear mass and a low speed of light of 1 m/s so the spring constant is small.

Wavy space-time can easily be curved by electromagnetic fields to get a space-time curvature over the hull. Activating the microwave beams on one side of the hull would allow for propulsion in that direction. Activating all the beams would make the craft levitate or propel upward.

So here we have a contradiction of Hong Kong research and the design of the space-time curvature spacecraft. We are on our way to the stars!

Time travel is possible (with some caveats), the issue lies in how we define time. I would love to say more but I shall reveal further info through my own website at the right time.

The work of these scientist is very much appreciated but it's part of trial and error.

The Chinese must have found something. First, they don't let the media talk about anything that has to do with time travel. Now they are telling the whole world that time travel is impossible. They must have built a time machine and not wanting the world to study about it so they could have it for themselves.

WHAT IF...they strapped little nano-rockets to a proton?

Also, think of how much mass a single human being could move using magnetism. Instead of using mechanical energy to push an object, couldn't one use a super magnet?

I have no idea if there *is* a technical reason why time travel is impossible, but I think that logic shows that it has not been developed yet - and, I hasten to add, never will be.

If it ever were to be possible, then where are the hordes of future travelers come to warn us about some calamity or other?
Just using (relatively) recent history, what future Christian would not take the chance to travel back and follow Jesus - or Mohammed, or Buddha. What Jew would not take the opportunity to zip back and strangle Hitler at birth? To be a bit more mundane, let's pop along and warn Capt Smith to slow the damn ship down!

This is all without invoking any version of the grandfather paradox, of course...

It is possible to go back in time, but you cannot change things because there are timeline monitors who will not permit it. They guard the timeline so that there are no paradoxes.

Speed of Light – Thoughts and Questions

Is a photon composed of multiple frequencies?
Can one frequency of a photon be described as the sum of several other frequencies, like in a Fourier Transform?
Do all frequencies travel at exactly the same speed?

If all frequencies travel at exactly the same speed, then the index of refraction of space has to be exactly 1. Is it exactly 1, or just a little bit more? How much is a little bit?

Thanks for using equations in your explanations. It is interesting to see the speed of light as a function of the inductance and capacitance of space. Does space have any resistivity? Is the resistivity exactly 0, or just a little bit? How much is a little bit? What would be the effect of space having resistivity?

Are the frequencies of a photon constant for the life of the photon? Do the frequencies decay, like signal degradation of an analog signal? What is the decay rate? Is the decay rate exactly 0, or is it a little bit? If the frequency decays over time and length, then the wavelength will increase, causing a red shift. Older photons from farther away will have more frequency decay and red shift than newer photons from a source that is nearer. Red shift from frequency decay is different than red shift from the Doppler Effect. Frequency decay and the Doppler Effect both contribute to the total red shift.

If the red shift is not entirely due to the Doppler Effect, then measurements of the red shift can not prove that “the farther away something is, the faster it is going away.” The red shift measurements do not prove that the universe is ever expanding at an accelerating pace powered by a mysterious force and energy. More likely, measurements of the red shift indicate that “the farther away something is, the older the photons are when they get here.”

Thanks,
-Tony

You find the resistance of space in antenna theory.

Voltage is the current times the resistance, or the resistance is the voltage divided by the current.

The voltage on a capacitor is the charge divided by the capacitance. So the resistance is the charge divided by the capacitance times the current. V=Q/CI.

The current is the charge divided by the time. This makes the resistance equal to the time divided by the capacitance. And the capacitance of space is the linear capacitance times the Planck scale. Since time is the Planck scale divided by the speed of light c, the resistance becomes the inverse of the speed of light c times the linear capacitance of space or

R = 1/ce where e is the linear capacitance =
376.7303135 ohms.

In another calculation, which is related to putting all the constants of physics into the infinity sign, the resistance that fits in one circle is the resistance R divided by pi/2 radians. The real units are ohms/radian.

As shown by Paul Hammond, the photon is really negative energy that is pushed along by a positive space-time curvature. Imagine an ocean wave above the flat surface of the ocean and a surfer down in the curl below the flat surface. The surfer has negative potential and the high wave has positive potential. After the wave crashes on the shore, the wave goes back out to sea.

In the Einstein tensor, there is both an outward flux and and inward flux. These two keep the universe in balance. The strange thing is that the inward flux approaches the antenna before the wave is emitted. You can see this in oscillating crystals in a dish where a wave starts in the center of the dish, and as it approaches the edge, another wave is emitted from the edge.

This description leads to the design of a spacecraft where a microwave beam is emitted into a vector potential. The photon goes out radially and is reflected back. A second photon is emitted which strips off the magnetic fields leaving the negative energy oscillating near the hull.

Because negative energy creates wormholes between space and hyperspace, a misty white cloud forms over and around the hull. A non-linear solenoid creates the vector potential and a small electromagnetic field is used to curve space-time to produce lift on the vehicle.

That is an interesting idea that there are space-time curvatures that delay the light reaching us. For example, the gravitational lens. Thus the distance to objects might not be what we think they are nor their real location.

So see how the photon is reflected off the vector potential well, mount a six-foot long spring between two posts. The long spring can be mounted on a length of tightened music wire threaded through the center of the spring. Then glue 3-inch pendulums along the length of the spring. I used guitar tuning keys to tighten the music wire.

At the end of the spring, increase the length of the pendulums slowly to 6 inches in length in an arc.

By twisting and releasing the small pendulum on one end, a wave travels along the spring. When it hits the longer pendulums, it reflects back to you. The interesting thing is that the longer pendulums oscillate very slowly. This might mean that the speed of the photon has been greatly reduced.

Unlike a magnetic field which does not penetrate the solenoid, the vector potential does penetrate the metal hull and non-linear solenoid. The reason the non-linear winding on the solenoid creates a vector potential is that it produces a dL/dh change of inductance per length.

Thanks again for the explanations.

What is the color of the "photon of youth"?

Just a pun, but maybe it is real.

Does it repair the telomeres after they fray?

Thanks,
-Tony

Notice that the resistance is also the linear inductance times the speed of light so the square of resistance is
RR = uc/ce = u/e or R = sqrt(u/e) which is the square root of the linear inductance divided by the linear capacitance.
So the resistance doesn't depend on the speed of light.

The photon of youth is Vitamin D3 because the body produces this vitamin with sunlight. It has many beneficial effects on the body such as absorption of calcium which is important in elderly people for strong bones. In northern countries, there is little sunlight and hence you have to take vitamin D3 to compensate.

Also, the heart chakra vortex is the color green, which happens to be the frequency of light between space and hyperspace. It is also the teleportation frequency (Dr. Vidal). That is, our energy field straddles the edge of hyperspace. Thus we are multidimensional beings.

An abductee asked the alien what the inverted tetrahedrons on his uniform patch meant and he replied, "It is the merging of two worlds."

The importance of this information is that it is possible to bring in additional energy into our energy field. This raises our frequency. The energy protects the body.

So the color of the photon of youth is green.

Incrediable amount of commentiers, cool!

"a single photon cannot travel faster than the speed of light"

Isn't that a bit like saying that a car cannot travel faster than... a car?

There may well be something of which we are not presently aware that 'travels faster than light', it just won't be light, is all.

The title of this article alone shows that this whole experiment is flawed. A photon, which is light, can't travel faster than light. That just doesn't make any sense.

This is like saying that a sound wave wouldn't be able to travel faster than the speed of sound. Why would it be able to go faster than its maximum speed limit? Just because light can't travel faster than light (which sounds completely crazy) doesn't mean that other stuff can't travel faster than light!!!

Soon this artical will achieve 60 responses! Yea baby!

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Everyone here keeps telling me how great this blog is supposed to be but I don't see any of the fairy dust. The writer needs much room for improvement to compel to read an article of his
again. Shaw Capital Management Online

i thought scientist already found out something that can travel faster than the speed of light.

The speed of light is a variable.
Just as there are different spectrums of light, there are different speeds at which it travels.
The general understanding of "the speed" of light is based on the speed in which the electro-chemical processes in our minds travel. We see only that which we are capable of seeing.

I felt obliged to register after reading johnstclair's comments. I have never seen a nutbag go to such extreme lengths to make things seem more complicated than they need to be. billy meier's stuff is obviously fake to any sane person.
Don't get me wrong, the rest of you have remarkable minds.
Different sound, pending frequency, I am certain has the possibility of travelling at different speeds and with different force also, take a low thumping bass and compare it to a low droning bass they both have like, but different effects then take a high pitch sound and you will get a different effect yet again, I guess this would be due to different frequencies. Considering this, if light is emitted at different frequencies, could it be correct to assume that it could travel at different speeds? Therefore, if a photon is being emitted at a subfrequency to the light it is being measured against, it could possibly travel slower? Alternatively, assuming this is possible, if you race a photon against a light which has a lower frequency than the photon you could argue that the photon is faster than the light you are gauging it against. As with religion, science can find a way to make the answers correct or incorrect. To argue time travel, I personally doubt the possibility. You cannot travel through time not just because of paradoxs or the Chronology Protection Conjecture but because it is purely impossible and science fiction. An effect can not occur before its cause and a cause can not return to its initial effect once the effect has taken place, you swing at a ball, you miss it, you can't simply swing the bat in reverse and be back where you started but you can take another swing at the next ball. With today's science theories, sound and light shouldn't have to have definitive, collective maximums for each, only a standard from which to work from.

Without reading any of the above,
What if you were riding on a photon and then turned on a flashlight?
What about Quarks?
IDK...

Question. Since some of you seem to understand this stuff and I am unfamiliar with most of it. If nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, then why isn't light able to escape a black hole?

@JohnStClair,

I can understand some of the things you are saying.

"The speed of light is the square root of the inverse of the linear inductance of space times the linear capacitance of space."

“The speed of light comes from the stiffness of space relative to electric and magnetic fields.

c = 1/(sqrt(eo/uo))

c = speed of light [m/s]
eo = Permittivity constant = 8.85 x 10^12 F/m
uo = Permeability constant = 1.26 x 10^6 H/m

A Farad is a unit of capacitance and is related to the electric field

1 F = 1 A*s/V

A Henry is a unit of inductance and is related to the magnetic field.

1 H = 1 V*s/A”

(Fundamentals of Physics, 3rd Edition, Chapter 37, Section 2. Maxwell’s Equations: A Tentative Listing)”

Is this the geometry of the subspace tetrahedral manifold that you are talking about? What is the cause and effect of this shape?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jThR6n8lZ8&feature=related

Thanks,
-Tony