I really wish I had the time, money and fore knowledge to sit in on a MIT quatum physics class. That would be amazing and probably very eye opening.

Originally posted by Talltexxxan
I have opened MANY physics books

The next step is to read them.

Originally posted by Talltexxxan
and I have used google search.

So google didn't give you any hits for "light" ...

Originally posted by Talltexxxan
But appaerently you havn't.

Hilarious.

Originally posted by Talltexxxan
Go take a look and see if you can find any sources that can explain it in non-physist terms. They are few and far between.

Try a Halliday, Resnick & Walker text, or Feynman text.

I mainly got on your case due to the juvenile phrasing of your question, and the fact that you don't seem to have done any study of what is known about the topic. It's such a waste for people to try use their imagination on topics like this without having any frame of reference, or understanding of what is currently known. It's like speculating on the future of the internet without ever having used a computer.

Light is an electromagnetic wave. All waves have an inherent speed defined by the property (usually density) of the medium. Sound waves travel about 343 m/s in air, depending on pressure & temperature. They travel much faster through water or solids. Other examples are water surface waves, or matter waves through a string.

"All known waves need a medium, except light, which doesn't need a medium" - this is where physicists start to go off track. Why would light not behave as all other waves? Logic dictates that there is a medium. The mathematics behind light describe it as a traveling wave with an electric component and magnetic component, each always at right angles to the other. What is the medium? It must be the same as the medium which governs electric and magnetic fields. "I will then make a metal object have a varying electric field, and thus it should produce a light or E/M wave" -- yep, this is the principle behind radio.

The fact that E and M waves are always at right angles, to me indicates dimensionality. Light is then the vibration of spacetime in those dimensions. "Why is it so fast?" We have no real basis of comparison, other than the matter-based wave analogs mentioned.. That's just how fast spacetime wants to vibrate in our local area of space, based on its "density." Some think light could have been faster in the past, if space was "more dense" back then.

Originally posted by windword
Why is it sooo dang fast? Because, TIME is of the essence!

Yep, I think you are alluding to examining the concept of speed in the first place:

v = d / t, speed = distance / time.

It's possible that it is not correct to think of the speed of light as the derived quantity, based on the relationship between the "static" quantities of distance and time. Rather, relativity tells us that in fact, the speed of light is what is constant, and distance and time must bend to adhere to it. Another fun concept is thinking of the speed of light as a conversion factor between distance and time:

c = 3 * 10^8 meters per 1 second (v = d/t)

since, similarly, E=mc^2 can be written as a conversion between energy and mass:

c^2 = 9 * 10^16 Joules / kg (E = mc^2, c^2 = E/m)

The reasoning is this -- if mass can be converted to energy (the evidence says it can), that not only means that mass and energy can be interchanged, but that the formula c^2 = E / m describes only a conversion of units, rather than some other relationship between things which cannot be interchanged, such as F = ma. Thus, the quantity "c^2" is merely a conversion constant. It must follow, then, that c is also a conversion constant between quantities which can be converted or related as similar in nature. c = d / t.

This theoretical conversion between distance and time is the basis of my personal theory of gravitation & spacetime, which is too long to get into here. I'll give you a taste though -- EVERYTHING in the universe is ALWAYS traveling at the "speed of light."

Originally posted by 4nsicphd
It is really hard to even discuss the theory without getting deeply into non-Euclidean geometry and Riemannian theories and I hesitate to do that even with my post-doc guys.

I took a non-euclidean geometry class when I was in undergrad... It's the reason I stopped short of getting a Math Minor. That stuff simply melted my brain, and not in the fun way.

Basically, my contribution to this discussion comes down to "Holy crap this is a complicated question"

Originally posted by Talltexxxan
The "it" I am referring to is light. In the begining Im assuming the universe was a pretty dark place, as there were no stars yet to shine. So you have swirling balls of (non luminesent) gas balling up and building pressure until *poof* you have fusion/fision. Along with that, you get some light. And now those teeny tiny particals start their long multi-billion year travel around the cosmos at, you guessed it, light speed. Light for the most part stays at its comfy speed of roughly 186,282 miles/sec. Now I know there are things in the universe that can slow, bend and distort light but once light is away from said object, does it not miraculously return to is normal speed or does it continue to be slightly distorted. I dont know. Back to the title of the thread, How is light so fast? Does it not play by the same rules of physics that every action has an equal and oposite reaction? What is the driving force that propels light at such incredable speeds and for such incredably long distances?

Dont bother posting unless you have somthing useful to say on the subject at hand, thanks.

oh, i'm sorry, you know what. please, ARE YOU GOD?

Time/space relative - if you take time as relative for every object in existence, then each thing that can be observed has its own state of time as well as the state of time that the observer has. Thus, if we live in a particular "referential" of time, then we only see objects as represented by our particular referential of time, and each object thus, can be seen according to different perspectives depending upon the frequency of time that the observer emits himself.

For example, I am not talking about past present future, I am talking about a rate of existence, that is, a zone or realm of "being" that each object occupies.

In terms of light, light can be measured as motion, we can actualy, really, only measure our perception of light as light is actually a stationary constant.