Light

[Guest guest]

>>"a c"

>>universe never was?

>Perhaps you might have been bothered by the

>implication that the universe never was according

>to Advaita Vedanta. I confess I'm still bothered

>by it but the following quote from Amit Goswami's

>website ("Science Within Consciousness"

>http://www.swcp.com/~hswift/swc/members/9802/)

>seems to corroborate this? More knowledgeable list

>members might elucidate the point...

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>According to the equations of Special Relativity,

>as an observer's speed increases, time slows down,

>and length (in the direction of motion) contracts.

>At the speed of light, time has slowed to a

>standstill and length contracted to zero. Although

>no object with mass can ever attain the speed of

>light (the equations predict that it would then

>have an infinite mass), light itself does (by

>definition) travel at the speed of light. From

>light's point of view-and this after all must be

>the most appropriate perspective from which to

>consider the nature of light, not our matter-bound

>mode of experience-it travels no distance and

>takes no time to do so.

>This reflects a unique property of light. In the

>spacetime continuum, the interval between the two

>ends of a light ray is always zero. How can we

>interpret this? We probably should not even try to

>interpret it. Any attempt to do so would make the

>mistake of applying concepts derived from our

>image of reality to the underlying reality. All we

>need to recognise is that, from light's

>perspective, this zero interval manifests as zero

>space and a corresponding amount of zero time.

 

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Contribution from jay

 

Further to postings by 'a c' and Greg Good. The fact that space/time

interval between two points joining a ray of light is always zero - does not

prove that the universe does not exist. It simply says that just as in Maths

you have concept of zero which we understand - accept and use as a tool

without any difficulty. So too in Physics we also have a 'zero' appearing in

space/time (the difference being --this zero comes in four dimensions).

 

But Light has another unusual quality - the fact that the speed measured in

any reference frame is always same has serious implications which I think

can translate to the idea that light does not have a mere objective reality

but also has intrinsic subjective element hence any frame will still measure

the speed of the same beam of light as being exactly same no matter how fast

the observer is moving towards or away from the light beam. --- That is

intriguing and has metaphysical overtones!

 

jay