Re: Quick Speed of Light Question
From: Paul Draper (pdraper_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 09/28/04
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Date: 28 Sep 2004 09:02:01 -0700
GoldenBoar <no@email.com> wrote in message news:<opseztgemf09ix88@mabsmain>...
> On 27 Sep 2004 06:39:31 -0700, Paul Draper <pdraper@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > Oh my, now I think I see why you got so many responses. Be very, very
> > careful with equations. Physics formulas are an extreme version of
> > shorthand, designed to provide mathematical rigor but leaving out
> > virtually all of the physical meaning, which is assumed to be in the
> > head of the reader. In this case, the assumption is poor.
> >
> > You show E=kT, and I call and raise with E=pc, E=(1/2)mv^2, E = T+V, E
> > = (1/2)kA^2, E=hf, and E=mc^2. Unless you can understand and
> > distinguish between the context of what E means in each of these
> > cases, you have no business pulling meaning out of a Wikipedia fomula.
> >
> > PD
>
> My original question is still unanswered.
>
> Imagine a boy in school who asks the teacher a question. The teacher
> completely ignores the boy. The next day, the boy asks the teacher the
> same question, and once again is ignored. On the third day, the boy goes
> to the library to try and find an answer to the question. He then asks the
> teacher the question again, and explains that he found an answer in the
> library, but believes it to be wrong, and asks the teacher why this is so.
> The tacher replies, "You have no business being in a library!"
>
> What does this say about the teacher?
> What does this say about the child?
>
> 2 words come to mind immediately, ignorance and arrogance.
Point taken. To answer your question, the background radiation of
space (2.7K) is "uncoupled" from the universe. That's why it is an
accurate remnant of that period 400,000 years after the Big Bang. As
such, it does not effectively change the speed of light in space
compared to the vacuum. Now, interstellar gas does have an effect, but
interstellar gas is so dilute that (I believe) the increment above 1
for the index of refraction is too small to be measured. I would be
thrilled to learn otherwise from someone who knows the measurements
better.
As to your object lesson, I would modify the parable.
Imagine a boy who asks a teacher a question. The teacher doesn't
understand the question. The boy repeats the question, which is "What
is 12-5?". The teacher says, "It's in your textbook, and it's part of
your homework. Why are you asking me for the answer you should be
learning yourself?" The boy doesn't like that answer and goes to the
library and finds an algebra book. The boy spends endless hours
frowning at the algebra book and then, after some days, comes back to
the teacher and says, "This book says 12-5 = x." The teacher says,
"Silly child. You refuse to do your homework. Stop studying a book you
are not ready for yet. When you have learned some arithmetic and
showed me you know how to do that, I will show you some algebra."
What does this say about the student?
What does this say about the teacher?
2 words come to mind: stubborness and laziness.
PD
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