It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
originally posted by: stormbringer1701
the key thing is the illumination must sweep the intervening objects at greater than light speed.
so there you have it We haz FTL sensors! kinda.
(I can hear the veins popping in the skulls of internet know-it-all science debunker types even as i type.)
originally posted by: Bedlam
originally posted by: stormbringer1701
the key thing is the illumination must sweep the intervening objects at greater than light speed.
so there you have it We haz FTL sensors! kinda.
(I can hear the veins popping in the skulls of internet know-it-all science debunker types even as i type.)
Not so much. The problem is one you get in your first year of calculus based physics. Sweeping a beam of light (the problem generally involves a searchlight) does not cause the beam to exceed the speed of light.
remember that non material things can travel FTL no problem.
Anything you can name is a thing. phase velocity in EM waves is a thing but it has no mass. the intersection of a closing pair of sissor blades is a thing. it can be named but it has no mass.
originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: stormbringer1701
remember that non material things can travel FTL no problem.
"non material things"…
Pulls ripcord…
originally posted by: Jonjonj
By non material things do you mean massless?
originally posted by: stormbringer1701
originally posted by: Jonjonj
By non material things do you mean massless?
yes. it can also be said it can convey no information. no communication by itself. Apparently some secondary effects can generate information and light that itself cannot travel faster than light.
originally posted by: Jonjonj
originally posted by: stormbringer1701
originally posted by: Jonjonj
By non material things do you mean massless?
yes. it can also be said it can convey no information. no communication by itself. Apparently some secondary effects can generate information and light that itself cannot travel faster than light.
I always assumed that a theoretically massless particle would be incapable of reacting with matter, and be unmeasurable, or at least impossible to interact with?
originally posted by: stormbringer1701
originally posted by: Jonjonj
originally posted by: stormbringer1701
originally posted by: Jonjonj
By non material things do you mean massless?
yes. it can also be said it can convey no information. no communication by itself. Apparently some secondary effects can generate information and light that itself cannot travel faster than light.
I always assumed that a theoretically massless particle would be incapable of reacting with matter, and be unmeasurable, or at least impossible to interact with?
kind of. there are some very weak interactions possible if i recall correctly but i may not be. but the phenomenon in question is not a particle and by itself has no energy either so that does not pertain to the present subject
originally posted by: Jonjonj
originally posted by: stormbringer1701
originally posted by: Jonjonj
originally posted by: stormbringer1701
originally posted by: Jonjonj
By non material things do you mean massless?
yes. it can also be said it can convey no information. no communication by itself. Apparently some secondary effects can generate information and light that itself cannot travel faster than light.
I always assumed that a theoretically massless particle would be incapable of reacting with matter, and be unmeasurable, or at least impossible to interact with?
kind of. there are some very weak interactions possible if i recall correctly but i may not be. but the phenomenon in question is not a particle and by itself has no energy either so that does not pertain to the present subject
Now i'm confused. Weak interactions between a massless ...energy? and a particle with mass...I know quantum theory is weird but...what?
it's not any part of the scissor itself. it's the point at which the blades intersect as they close or open. it has no mass. it's not a particle.
originally posted by: supermouse
a reply to: Jonjonj
I think light is massless (it only has momentum). So we can definitely perceive and interact with stuff that doesn't have mass.
I don't believe that scissors can go faster than light though.
originally posted by: supermouse
a reply to: Jonjonj
I think light is massless (it only has momentum). So we can definitely perceive and interact with stuff that doesn't have mass.
I don't believe that scissors can go faster than light though.
originally posted by: stormbringer1701
i said nothing about the speed of the beam itself.
originally posted by: Bedlam
originally posted by: Jonjonj
Photons have not been proven to be massless, their possible mass has been restricted to very small numbers, but massless...nope
They have 0 rest mass.
It is almost certainly impossible to do any experiment that would establish the photon rest mass to be exactly zero. The best we can hope to do is place limits on it. A non-zero rest mass would introduce a small damping factor in the inverse square Coulomb law of electrostatic forces. That means the electrostatic force would be weaker over very large distances.
Likewise, the behavior of static magnetic fields would be modified. An upper limit to the photon mass can be inferred through satellite measurements of planetary magnetic fields. The Charge Composition Explorer spacecraft was used to derive an upper limit of 6 × 10−16 eV with high certainty. This was slightly improved in 1998 by Roderic Lakes in a laboratory experiment that looked for anomalous forces on a Cavendish balance. The new limit is 7 × 10−17 eV. Studies of galactic magnetic fields suggest a much better limit of less than 3 × 10−27 eV, but there is some doubt about the validity of this method.