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Article #4785Re: Some physics questions
From: RING, DAVID WAYNE
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 21:30
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 21:30
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sciamanda@edinboro.edu writes... >> 4) Why is the speed of light constant? >Short answer: The invariance of c is an axiom of Einstein's special theory >of relativity (1905). > >Long answer: This question is really concerned with the matter of how we >choose (or design) standards for the measurement of space and time intervals. [deletia] Good answer. After some thought, I think the ultimate reason we can have unambiguous standards for time is that the gravitational force is weak. In particular, if it were impossible to make a clock whose size was small compared to the scale of spacetime curvature, there could not be an unambiguous standard. Dave Ring dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu
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Newsgroups: sci.physics Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!pacbell.com!ames!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!zeus.tamu.edu!dwr2560 From: dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE) Subject: Re: Some physics questions Message-ID: <11NOV199215302274@zeus.tamu.edu> News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 Sender: news@tamsun.tamu.edu (Read News) Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services References: <ksiew.720770120@munagin> <1992Nov10.173420.9056@edinboro.edu> Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 21:30:00 GMT Lines: 17