Does light only travel at one speed?

meghatronic said:
Something I've always liked is the fact if the sun suddenly died, it'd take us 8 minutes to even know. That's all, 8 minutes.

/gonna be paranoid for the next 8:01 mins.
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The only way a sun could instantly die, would be if it went supernova, and in that event you would be dead before the light photons even made it half way to earth. We wouldn't even know.

But, our sun doesn't have the mass for a supernova, so it will expand to a red giant, in which case you will slowly fry to death :D much worse lol
 
stopper said:
The only way a sun could instantly die, would be if it went supernova, and in that event you would be dead before the light photons even made it half way to earth. We wouldn't even know.

But, our sun doesn't have the mass for a supernova, so it will expand to a red giant, in which case you will slowly fry to death :D much worse lol
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So you are saying that the Supernova travels faster than the speed of light?

That doesn't sound right.

Although the amount of radiation put out by a dying star would have probably killed any life on Earth a long time before it actually went supernova, if that is what you were getting at?
 
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stopper said:
The only way a sun could instantly die, would be if it went supernova, and in that event you would be dead before the light photons even made it half way to earth. We wouldn't even know.
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Despite my love of Star Trek I always grit my teeth slightly when I watch Generations. A star is snuffed out and the light from its death reaches the ship immediately. That and the fact Worf says it'd take about 15 seconds for the missile to go from the planet to the star, which means it'd be about 50 times faster than light, yet it doesn't have warp drive.

I'm only willing to suspend my disbelief so far before I start nit picking Star Trek.
 
BetaNumeric said:
Despite my love of Star Trek I always grit my teeth slightly when I watch Generations. A star is snuffed out and the light from its death reaches the ship immediately. That and the fact Worf says it'd take about 15 seconds for the missile to go from the planet to the star, which means it'd be about 50 times faster than light, yet it doesn't have warp drive.

I'm only willing to suspend my disbelief so far before I start nit picking Star Trek.
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It. Is. A. Film.

Every second is precious in a film. They can't hang around for an hour for the rocket to get to the star, then another half an hour for the light of the explosion to get back.

Pacing, style and plot are nearly always > physics in films! :p
 
SiriusB said:
It. Is. A. Film.

Every second is precious in a film. They can't hang around for an hour for the rocket to get to the star, then another half an hour for the light of the explosion to get back.

Pacing, style and plot are nearly always > physics in films! :p
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+1


Too many people think Star Trek is some kind of docudrama.
 
SiriusB said:
It. Is. A. Film.
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I know. It's not like I yell things at the TV.

Not any more.

SiriusB said:
Every second is precious in a film. They can't hang around for an hour for the rocket to get to the star, then another half an hour for the light of the explosion to get back.
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Hollywood has its own version of relativity, action sequences slow down whenever an important character gets shot and has to say something profound to his best pal but when a nobody gets show they die immediately, even from a shot to the leg.

SiriusB said:
Pacing, style and plot are nearly always > physics in films! :p
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Style? Plot? In a Star Trek film? :p

joemo13 said:
The newest movie had so many physics holes in the plot it was barley watch-able!
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Not to mention lens flares, so many lens flares!
 
Yeah not so sure about the constant speed of light thing when referring to gravitation effect. Surely if mavity can alter it's direction then by the very nature mavity it's having a direct effect on the 'substance' of light.

If light has a 'substance' that can be changed direction then surely it stands to reason that it could also be sped up and slowed down? If mavity can effect lights direction what happens if the light is traveling directly perpendicular to the force of mavity, i.e. either toward or away?

Sorry if this has already been discussed - I couldn't be bothered reading all the toing and froing.

EDIT: Ignore - already discussed. But just for arguments sake - you're all clearly wrong and light is much like the cake and is a lie.
 
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Castiel said:
So you are saying that the Supernova travels faster than the speed of light?

That doesn't sound right.

Although the amount of radiation put out by a dying star would have probably killed any life on Earth a long time before it actually went supernova, if that is what you were getting at?
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No, I'll admit I got it wrong. Wasn't really thinking at the time, was concentrating more on us slowly burning to death instead of the quote of not knowing about it for 8 mins.
It was supposed to be a joke post :p

But if such an explosion happened to our sun, light wouldn't even be a factor, it would simply consume us instantly.
 
SeydaNeen said:
"The slowest speed recorded is through sodium at -272 C during which the speed of light fell to 60kph – about the speed of a bicycle."
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As far as I can recall, scientists brought light to a near standstill by shining it into a Bose-Einstein Condensate. I can't give you any more info because that's all I can remember. :)
 
the universe is so vast and huge beyond imaginable. Man once thought the world was flat and has now been proven otherwise, who knows what laws may govern light and the speed of which it travels under all circumstances, untill all sides of a picture have been looked at you dont have an answer
 
Morbius said:
As far as I can recall, scientists brought light to a near standstill by shining it into a Bose-Einstein Condensate. I can't give you any more info because that's all I can remember. :)
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sounds about right because what about black holes. If no light escapes its orbit and its not going anywhere its speed surely varies

star trek is often more space soap opera then sci fi
 
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