Can light slow down?

Please forgive if this is a bunch of bunk. I JUST had a thought and I want to share it before I forget it.

I always hear how nothing can travel faster, or as fast, as the speed of light. The closer an object gets to the speed of light its mass starts increasing, which means more and more power is needed to go faster until it reaches a point where the power itself is just creating more and more mass.

But, what if light can slow down? I'm thinking about how light supposedly can't escape the force of a black hole. If a beam of light is trying to pass over a black hole, in its futile struggle to escape wouldn't the photons have to slow down first before being sucked in? Consider a ball that has been thrown into the air. As gravity pulls on it, the ball must slow down first before being pulled back to earth. Right?

What if aliens found a way to slow down light surrounding a spacecraft of somekind (Honestly, I have no idea what this would entail), and then they shutdown the force that is holding the light prisoner. Wouldn't this enable something to reach the speed of light?

Am I off my rocker, or what?

Isn't that what a prism does? Slow down light?

Yes

Read this article about light being slowed down to 38mph

Physicists slow speed of light

Originally posted by mayabong
Isn't that what a prism does? Slow down light?

I thought a prism just split the light into individual spectrums...

Einstein mentioned the concept of 'tired light' but I do not recall any details. Interesting idea.

It can be bent so it seems logical it can also be slowed, but by how much.

reply to post by jiggerj


Perhaps when a star is sucked into a black hole it's light can not escape because it has gone into another dimension where all known physics break down.
An object falling to Earth like an apple would not slow down before hitting the ground unless there was a source of resistance - but I am guessing

A good thought provoking thread, S&F good sir.

I agree, if light is being sucked into a black hole, it must surely be slowed down by the gravitational pull?

Originally posted by oghamxx
Einstein mentioned the concept of 'tired light' but I do not recall any details. Interesting idea.

It can be bent so it seems logical it can also be slowed, but by how much.

edit on 24-4-2012 by oghamxx because: (no reason given)

Yes light bends - The Einstein Cross has been proven and visually captured.

If a distant galaxy lines up directly behind another and in direct line with the eye of telescope
You would see 5 points of lights
A central light and 4 surrounding lights

archive.ncsa.illinois.edu...

reply to post by jiggerj


The speed of light is not always constant, it depends on the medium. Gravity can slow the speed of light using your example of a black hole. From what I understand about physics the gravity does not slow the light it bends the space around it not allowing it to escape. I am pretty sure I am right about this, but I would like to hear what phage has to say. if I recall correctly he is an awesome with this kind of stuff.

Originally posted by 11I11
A good thought provoking thread, S&F good sir.

I agree, if light is being sucked into a black hole, it must surely be slowed down by the gravitational pull?

I am not sure if it would be slowed down, or merely not able to escape the gravity of the singularity. Basically spinning at the speed of light but not able to achieve escape velocity and travel faster then the speed of light due to the extreme gravity. Again I have no idea what I am talking about so I'll defer to experts on these subjects.

Originally posted by ANOK

Originally posted by Hydroman

Originally posted by mayabong
Isn't that what a prism does? Slow down light?

I thought a prism just split the light into individual spectrums...

We see the individual spectrums, because the light is slowed down.

Matter slows down energy also - I saw an experiment where energy was fired at a dense object.
The speed the energy entered was slowed down by the object - But it came out the other side at it's original speed - Energy can not die but matter can slow it down

reply to post by jiggerj


Light can slow down and speed up again.
This is a 1st year college or university lesson that ends up on quizzes.
With all the advanced science put to the high schools it probable doesn't
help or never covered. Light can't go through walls. Space has a gaseous
medium at the least. Light in glass slows down then goes out into the
air and speeds up. The proof is in an equation the encounters the density
of the medium. Some people say EM waves propagate in the vacuum of
space and others dismiss the EM formulation. The problem is that formulas
can be made to fool.

So the air to glass to air example thus shows the medium determines light speed.
So yes light can slow down and has been used to explain lots of things already.

Particles might go faster than light but light can't go faster than in the easiest medium.

The black hole is a quantum mechanical gas ball of neutrons or protons like the Sun
is of Hydrogen.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


I tought that Einstein's Relativity relied on the fact that the speed of light is always constant, no matter the emitter or observer's movements?

I seen a show on TV just last night talking about this. They said that the speed of light could be faster and slower in other parts of the universe. They even went onto say that even the very laws of physics could be different in other parts of the universe. They went onto say that there is growing evidence that light has been slowing down still the universe began. Light may at open time traveled several times faster than it does now. Some evidence shows it could have at one time traveled as much as 10 times faster than now. They said that with the speed of light not being a consent and even though the universe that is would be impossible to tell anything about the ago of the universe.

reply to post by fixer1967


10 times faster than light? That contradicts Einstein's theory. His theory is based on Light being a constant.

Originally posted by swan001
reply to post by fixer1967

 

10 times faster than light? That contradicts Einstein's theory. His theory is based on Light being a constant.

They said at the time of the big bang and for quit some time afterward the speed of light was faster than it is now. Maybe 10 times faster than now. I like Einstein as well as the next person and I hate to see his work messed with but that is what some of the evidence is showing now days. Just think what he could have done if he had the data we have now to work with. If he was alive today and had that data and tech we have now he could invent a FTL drive in a week and within a year we would be all over the galaxy.
As as for the wording of the statement that was made. They said that LIGHT then could have be up to 10 times faster than LIGHT now.

I guess that means everything could have been up to 10 times faster maybe even the very flow of time its self. Now if time can be a variable than a whole lot of other possibles come into play..

10 times faster? How about maybe 60 times faster?


speed of light

Originally posted by swan001
reply to post by TeslaandLyne

 

I tought that Einstein's Relativity relied on the fact that the speed of light is always constant, no matter the emitter or observer's movements?

nah, speed of light is constant in a vacuum.

Yes and no,
Speed of light is an absolute constant, it always travels the same speed. It just appears to go slower in a medium because the interaction with the matter, the photons are being absorbed by the atoms and reemits them at the same speed. It just takes more time to travel through the medium. The delay of absorption and emmission.
Depending on the refractive index of the medium. Like for the refractive index of water is around 1.3 so it's C/1.3.
In a vaccuum it's 1.
en.wikipedia.org...

So you could say light slows down when travelling through a medium but it just takes longer to travel through.

For light travelling near a black hole, photons are being bend or 'trapped' not slowed down.