Related papers: $c$ at the belfry
In this paper, we discuss some of the consequences of the CGPM (1983) definition of meter and, in particular, we discuss giving the speed of light an exact value. It is shown that this act touches the fundamental paradigms, such as the…
Light-in-flight (LIF) imaging is the measurement and reconstruction of light's path as it moves and interacts with objects. It is well known that relativistic effects can result in apparent velocities that differ significantly from the…
The so-called principle of relativity is able to fix a general coordinate transformation which differs from the standard Lorentzian form only by an unknown speed which cannot in principle be identified with the light speed. Based on a…
Equations of light, propagating from quasar to observer on earth, are integrated in the time-dependent gravitational field of the solar system by making use of either retarded or advanced solutions of the Einstein field equations. This…
We show how light can be controllably transported by light at microscale dimensions. We design a miniature device which consists of a short segment of an optical fiber coupled to transversely-oriented input-output microfibers. A whispering…
In 1907, Einstein suggested an experiment with flying atoms for corroborating time dilation. In that paper, the flying atom was conceived as a flying clock: the reference to the Doppler effect was only indirect (the experiments by Stark to…
The first direct experimental test of Einstein's theory of general relativity involved a pair of expeditions to measure the bending of light at a total solar eclipse that took place one hundred years ago, on 29 May 1919. So famous is this…
Wang, Kuzmich and Dogariu, in their 20 July, 2000, Nature article, describe an experiment ostensibly measuring superluminal speeds of 310c via a few percent shift in time of an optical pulse undergoing anomalous dispersion in a pumped…
The theoretical predictions, derived from the Lorentz and the Tangherlini transformations, for the one-way speed of any physical entity are confronted with the corresponding expressions for the one-way measured speed obtained from a…
Logicians at the R\'enyi Mathematical Institute in Budapest have spent several years developing versions of relativity theory (special, general, and other variants) based wholly on first order logic, and have argued in favour of the…
On November 12, 1802, Thomas Young lays down in front of the Royal Society of London his Theory of Light and Colours. In this text, he defends a vibratory model or light, in which the peculiar attention he gives to the consequence of the…
We measure the speed of light with current observations, such as Type Ia Supernova, galaxy ages, radial BAO mode, as well as simulations of forthcoming redshift surveys and gravitational waves as standard sirens. By means of a Gaussian…
The convention dependence of one-way light speed is explained in a manner accessible to those unaccustomed to the concept. That logic is used to challenge the claim by Greaves et al that their experiment detected one-way light speed. The…
In 1626, the Venetian physician Santorio Santorio published the details of his pulsilogium, a stop clock that could accurately measure one's pulse rate. He applied Galileo Galilei's insights that the frequency of a pendulum's oscillation is…
We posit a second massless photon, uncoupled to known forms of matter but undergoing Lorentz non-invariant velocity mixing with ordinary photons. Our speculation within a speculation suffers from the sin of implausibility but enjoys the…
Fermat's principle applied to a flat metric in the plane yields the phase of a Bessel function in the periodic domain for a constant index of refraction. Gravitational forces cause the index of refraction to vary and lead to a modified…
The year 2015 was the International Year of Light. It marked, however, also the 20th anniversary of the first observation of Bose-Einstein condensation in atomic vapors by Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle. This discovery can…
Experiments may not reveal their full import at the time that they are performed. The scientists who perform them usually are testing a specific hypothesis and quite often have specific expectations limiting the possible inferences that can…
We empirically determined the speed of light by measuring the variation in longitudinal mode frequencies, or the beat frequencies, of an adjustable-length, open-cavity helium-neon laser as a function of its cavity length. The TEM$_{00}$…
The empirical evidences in favor of the hypothesis that the speed of light decreases by a few centimeters per second each year are examined. Lunar laser ranging data are found to be consistent with this hypothesis, which also provides a…