4 ms·

There is this theory that speed of light is not symmetrical, that is it may be c/2 in one direction and infinity in the opposite one. Given that, we could perce

There is this theory that speed of light is not symmetrical, that is it may be c/2 in one direction and infinity in the opposite one. Given that, we could perceive that meteorites took millions of years to arrive, but it could be in a instant.

ISL 6y ago
Such a theory is in conflict with more than a century of searches for anisotropies of spacetime. No anisotropies have ever been found, beginning with Michelson's seminal experiment.
polishdude20 6y ago
What is the opposite direction anyways? Opposite to what? The original message? What if the two transceivers are rotating around the sun on opposite sides? What is one direction at one point in time is now another direction at another point. Is there a difference between bouncing a signal off of a mirror back to yourself and sending a signal which then gets a response from the receiving party? Is my point coming across? Because like, are we talking about direction relative to a receiver or direction relative to some fixed body in space?
tasty_freeze 6y ago
You overstate it by calling it a theory. I'm sure you just watched the Veritasium video [1] on this very subject. The point wasn't to claim that space has a preferred direction (which would contradict known physics) but highlighting that there is no way to prove the speed of light is uniform, only that the round trip speed is 'c'. Second, even if the speed of light is unbounded (or has a much higher bound) in one direction, that doesn't give a free ride for objects with mass to travel any faster than they currently do. It would take an incredible amount of energy to accelerate such rocks to near/above the constant 'c' and then you'd need to explain how it returns to normal asteroid speeds before crashing into Earth. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k
- varispeed 6y ago
  Thank you! Haha yes I watched Veritasium video...
- AnimalMuppet 6y ago
  With synchronized atomic clocks, I could measure one-way speed - at least well enough to tell the difference between c, c/2, and infinity.
  - tasty_freeze 6y ago
    Watch the linked video. He goes into that issue.
    - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
      No, I'm not going to watch the linked video to find out whether he's really answering my question or not. Tell me why I can't synchronize two atomic clocks that are right next to each other, then put one in a car and drive 1000 km away. Tell me why that won't allow me to correlate departure and arrival times well enough to answer the question.
      - tasty_freeze 6y ago
        You are being rather demanding, but I'll bite anyway. When a synchronized clock is accelerated, it will experience time dilation as compared to the stationary clock; they will no longer be synchronized. You might think: ah, I'll just correct for that using relativistic calculations. But you'd be wrong again because Einstein explicitly states that everything in his theory assumes that the speed of light is uniform. Really, the video does explain all this and more.
syntheno 6y ago
What? How did you arrive at that conclusion?

ISL 6y ago

Such a theory is in conflict with more than a century of searches for anisotropies of spacetime. No anisotropies have ever been found, beginning with Michelson's seminal experiment.

polishdude20 6y ago

What is the opposite direction anyways? Opposite to what? The original message? What if the two transceivers are rotating around the sun on opposite sides? What is one direction at one point in time is now another direction at another point. Is there a difference between bouncing a signal off of a mirror back to yourself and sending a signal which then gets a response from the receiving party? Is my point coming across? Because like, are we talking about direction relative to a receiver or direction relative to some fixed body in space?

tasty_freeze 6y ago

You overstate it by calling it a theory. I'm sure you just watched the Veritasium video [1] on this very subject. The point wasn't to claim that space has a preferred direction (which would contradict known physics) but highlighting that there is no way to prove the speed of light is uniform, only that the round trip speed is 'c'. Second, even if the speed of light is unbounded (or has a much higher bound) in one direction, that doesn't give a free ride for objects with mass to travel any faster than they currently do. It would take an incredible amount of energy to accelerate such rocks to near/above the constant 'c' and then you'd need to explain how it returns to normal asteroid speeds before crashing into Earth. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k

varispeed 6y ago
Thank you! Haha yes I watched Veritasium video...
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
With synchronized atomic clocks, I could measure one-way speed - at least well enough to tell the difference between c, c/2, and infinity.
- tasty_freeze 6y ago
  Watch the linked video. He goes into that issue.
  - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    No, I'm not going to watch the linked video to find out whether he's really answering my question or not. Tell me why I can't synchronize two atomic clocks that are right next to each other, then put one in a car and drive 1000 km away. Tell me why that won't allow me to correlate departure and arrival times well enough to answer the question.
    - tasty_freeze 6y ago
      You are being rather demanding, but I'll bite anyway. When a synchronized clock is accelerated, it will experience time dilation as compared to the stationary clock; they will no longer be synchronized. You might think: ah, I'll just correct for that using relativistic calculations. But you'd be wrong again because Einstein explicitly states that everything in his theory assumes that the speed of light is uniform. Really, the video does explain all this and more.

syntheno 6y ago

What? How did you arrive at that conclusion?