Measuring Light's Speed
Those of you that have read my articles are probably thinking... Ok, what does this have to do with technology? Well, I'm actually talking about the actual speed of light, here. Really.
One-Way Speed of Light
Although this is still technical, I admit that I am deviating from my normal sandbox and instead playing in the street. :) Regardless, I am interested in starting a crowd-sourced idea on this unique problem.
Problem Description
As of yet, the unidirectional speed of light has never been measured. There are many problems with measuring the one-way speed of light, not the least of which is the extreme accuracy of timing devices and the problem with their synchronization. Because of that, we have stated, as an assumption, that the two-way (there and back) speed of light is twice the one-way speed of light. This would be a valid assumption if we also assume that the speed of light is the same in all directions and all places. From a scientific view, neither of those assumptions should be accepted until proven. To date, I am unaware of any successful test or scenario which has been able to test the two-way speed.
Therefore, to expand on the problem, as the speed of light approaches infinity in one direction, it will conversely approach ? C in the opposite direction. Therefore, it would be impossible to determine through our measuring techniques that there is any difference. The measurement would seem correct, and light would behave as we have come to expect.
A good video which explains this problem better can be found here:
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Possible Option?
If we accept that the observed position of an object is directly related to the speed of light, than perhaps we have an astronomical option. For example, if we see the sun at a certain position in the sky, we must recognize that the sun is actually not in that exact location that we have observed, but is actually about 7 minutes beyond that point, because of the time that has elapsed for the light to reach us. Because the distance is so vast that the time is measured in minutes, perhaps we can use this to our advantage? What if we were to measure, with a tool similar to a sextant (only much more precise), the exact moment which a limb of the sun is observed at a given position? This could be measured at multiple points during the year, and the results compared. The exact observed position of the sun can be predicted by an accurate chronograph and some math. A deviation in either direction would indicate that light has either moved faster, or slower in that direction.
Finding the Problems
The important way to solve such problems is to find challenges. Why will this not work? Scientifically, what is the flaw in this design? Then, perhaps someone can come up with a solution to that challenge. Let's play with this one and see if we can solve this centuries-old puzzle.
One obvious problem is that the sun/earth lie in a common plane, which makes a complete 3-dimensional measurement impossible with this model, but perhaps it creates the sample model upon which a more complete test can be built?
This also make certain assumptions about the orbit of the earth, and that the relativity caused by the earth’s movement through space will not adversely impact the test.
Additional factors may be the shape of the earth's orbit with respect to the sun. How do we validate that it is what we think it should be?
So, what do you think? How can we improve this test to definitively show a difference in the speed of light at different points?
So what do you think?
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10 个月Damn, Cliff. now my brain hurts :) not something I really worry about, but I'm sure there are ways to insure that reflected light is the same speed as the initial light, therefore proving that one way direction of light is the same as it's 2 way direction.