How fast is the speed of dark?

clv101 · 7 May 2006 at 15:49

Smithy said:
i see, well this is the only formula for momentum ive learnt so far in my physics course. I guess even though we study particle physics also, we dont study to the extent of involving other concepts such as laws of momentum etc.
Interesting though.

I studied physics to masters level and the interesting thing is that every two years or so from pre-GCSE to masters level (and I expect beyond) you learn that what was taught before wasn't actually 'correct' but merely a model which is reasonably accurate within certain limits.

That goes for all of physics - it is 'only' a model, a way of describing observations and making predictions that is reasonably accurate. We are still a long way from what could be called complete understanding.

Scania · 7 May 2006 at 15:50

The speed of dark eh? Hmm, I'll pass on that.

My gripe, if you can travel faster than sound, is somebody who's deaf experiencing something else?

Inquisitor · 7 May 2006 at 16:10

Smithy said:
i see, well this is the only formula for momentum ive learnt so far in my physics course. I guess even though we study particle physics also, we dont study to the extent of involving other concepts such as laws of momentum etc.
Interesting though.

If your course involves any quantum theory (mine does, I'm doing the OCR course), you should come accross p = h/lamda when you do it, it's part of particle/wave duality.

Pickers · 7 May 2006 at 16:15

Inquisitor said:
If your course involves any quantum theory (mine does, I'm doing the OCR course), you should come accross p = h/lamda when you do it, it's part of particle/wave duality.

You should also come across the de broglie wavelength - which tells you the wavelength of a tennis ball, or you, for example.

SaBBz · 7 May 2006 at 16:16

Kesnel said:
The speed of dark is all well and good, but what about the speed of smell?

Diffusion equation tbh.

Ricochet J · 7 May 2006 at 16:18

Kesnel said:
The speed of dark is all well and good, but what about the speed of smell?

R124/LA420 said:
The speed of dark eh? Hmm, I'll pass on that.

My gripe, if you can travel faster than sound, is somebody who's deaf experiencing something else?

Rip Offs'!!! Get your own threads

Deathwish · 7 May 2006 at 18:29

Hmm, strange, similar sort of conversation going on in this flat atm. We have decided it would be interesting if E=mc3 instead of E=mc2

Not sure how we came to that conclusion, might have been beer induced thought.

pyro · 7 May 2006 at 19:00

Arcade Fire said:
What's wrong with that? My mum says I'm a normal boy.

HAHAHA mumy's boy

Smithy · 7 May 2006 at 19:55

eXSBass said:
A Level right

right

Inquisitor said:
If your course involves any quantum theory (mine does, I'm doing the OCR course), you should come accross p = h/lamda when you do it, it's part of particle/wave duality.

We only went over the concept/ theory of wave/ particle duality (Very interesting also i might add), but didnt involve it in momentum equations. Hmm, what level you studying it at?

The_Dark_Side · 7 May 2006 at 23:20

R124/LA420 said:
My gripe, if you can travel faster than sound, is somebody who's deaf experiencing something else?

in the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

i'm not sure that has any relevance at all but it sounded really pithy in my head anyway

n3vrmind · 7 May 2006 at 23:22

Your looking at this the wrong way

Light is only our perception of an energy, Light happens in our eyeballs by stimulation by that energy, different wavelengths stimulate different colours.

so if your referring to the speed of light and dark your referring to how fast the eye can be stimulated to see light and how long it takes to revert to an unstimulated state afterwards

since if you stare at a bright light you can effectively be blinded for a moment and even experience a ghosting of the light when you turn away, id say the speed of dark is considerably slower than the speed of light

however when we are referring to light energy, everyone looks at space being filled with darkness, this simply isnt true, light energy from stars shines out in all directions meaning every bit of open space has light energy passing through it all the time but there usually nothing there to be illuminated or simply reflects too little of the light for us to see it, our eyes are adjusted see the range of light that we consider light and dark, but if our sun was only a 10th as bright as it is our eyes would be adjusted differently and we'd see more of the light from space

Inquisitor · 7 May 2006 at 23:35

Smithy said:
right

We only went over the concept/ theory of wave/ particle duality (Very interesting also i might add), but didnt involve it in momentum equations. Hmm, what level you studying it at?

Doing AS levels at the moment. The equation was only mentioned in passing actually while going over wave/particle duality, so it's not an essential part of the course I think, which would be why you haven't heard of it

Smithy · 7 May 2006 at 23:42

okiday
<- A2 level

Gets better trust me, just hang on in there lol.

Arcade Fire · 8 May 2006 at 01:44

I don't think that quantum mechanics or particle physics of any kind should be studied at A Level. I did it in my course, and it only served to confuse the hell out of me. If you want to learn about it then go read QED by Richard Feynman instead - it will tell you much more than any A Level physics course ever could.

In my opinion a physics course should explain the natural world in an understandable way which enables you to conduct investigations on your own, should you wish to. It should not be about teaching people titbits of information about the three families of quarks or whatever. There's plenty of time for that when you get to university - and if you don't want to study physics that far, then go read a book!

Inquisitor · 8 May 2006 at 02:10

Arcade Fire said:
I don't think that quantum mechanics or particle physics of any kind should be studied at A Level. I did it in my course, and it only served to confuse the hell out of me. If you want to learn about it then go read QED by Richard Feynman instead - it will tell you much more than any A Level physics course ever could.

In my opinion a physics course should explain the natural world in an understandable way which enables you to conduct investigations on your own, should you wish to. It should not be about teaching people titbits of information about the three families of quarks or whatever. There's plenty of time for that when you get to university - and if you don't want to study physics that far, then go read a book!

I agree here really. Although I'm very interested in quantum mechanics, we didn't go into enough depth for it to actually be of any use, it was more of a crash course in quantum mechanics, which, as you said, just throws the basic concepts at you and doesn't explain any of it, leaving you rather confused at the end.

I might take a look at that book, sounds interesting

Xenoxide · 8 May 2006 at 10:47

As stated, dark is the absense of light. Also, since something that does not exist cannot have a speed, you cannot measure the "speed of dark". Instead, you need to think of it as "the speed at which light vacates an area to create dark".

Which, obviously, is the speed of light. The two are one in the same.

Hamzter · 8 May 2006 at 11:44

The speed of dark is faster than the speed of light. a lot faster. That is, however, if you take meaning of 'speed of dark' to mean the speed of a shadow. Think about a bird flying on a sunny day, its shadow projects onto the ground at the same speed that the bird is flying at. Now if the sun's nearly overhead, and the bird passes over a wall, the birds shadow with increase speed dramatically and 'climb' the wall. Theoretically, if the angle between the sun and the wall was shallow enough, the shadow would travel faster then the speed of light, causing the bird to explode.

Zefan · 8 May 2006 at 11:50

Hamzter said:
causing the bird to explode.

And I thought you were being serious

Pickers · 8 May 2006 at 11:52

Hamzter said:
The speed of dark is faster than the speed of light. a lot faster. That is, however, if you take meaning of 'speed of dark' to mean the speed of a shadow. Think about a bird flying on a sunny day, its shadow projects onto the ground at the same speed that the bird is flying at. Now if the sun's nearly overhead, and the bird passes over a wall, the birds shadow with increase speed dramatically and 'climb' the wall. Theoretically, if the angle between the sun and the wall was shallow enough, the shadow would travel faster then the speed of light, causing the bird to explode.

lol - you have to be kidding right?

Hamzter · 8 May 2006 at 12:05

Pickers said:
lol - you have to be kidding right?

Lol, absolutely not! Well, maybe the bit about the bird exploding.....

Theoretically it's quite possible, you can exceed the speed of light since it's not actually a physical object, it's just our interpretation of it. There's loads of situations where the similar things occur, if you set a series of explosives to go off on a timer that are ever so slightly different, then spread them out in a line over a few hundred miles, you could get it so that the explosions progress faster than the speed of light. No laws are being broken though, since there's no information travelling faster than the speed of light.