Re: The speed of light is neither constant nor variable

Dear Albertito:

On Dec 31, 5:21 am, Albertito <albertito1...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A photon is emitted from A to B, but if you measure
that photon at an intermediary point C, then that
photon was emitted from A to C, not to B.

Or A emits more than one photon.

This means there is no path for any photon, only
two points, (i.e. emission and absorption points).

What is detected at either B or C, shows effects of having passed
between A and the detector. Changes in polarization, perhaps boosting
by spinning massive objects, delay by intervening media, direction
change by intervening geometries.

Of course, you can argue that that intermediary
point can retransmit that photon towards B, once
it was absorbed. A retransmitted photon is not
the original photon, but a new one, and it may
exhibit either the same state or a different one,
depending on the properties and state of system
in C that absorbed the former.

Or A emits more than 1 photon, then the struggle is not needed.

So, the question is, if there are no intermediary
points between A and B which can absorb and
retransmit that photon, what is the speed of that
photon "travelling" from A to B?.

In quantum mechanics, a propagating photon is made up of an "infinite"
series of virtual photons. So every point along the path is an
"absorption" and "reemission".

The answer is a nonlocal and "instantaneous speed",
it is saying, once it is emitted, it is
instantaneous absorbed, so the "speed" is  infinite!.

Does not follow.

<snip the balance, based on misconception / unstated assumptions>

David A. Smith
.

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