Speed of Light

[Tamrin]

From time to time, one comes across ill-informed debates over whether or not the speed of light is a constant. With a few caveats, the speed of light, regardless of frequency, is 299,792,458 metres per second in a vacuum. Unsurprisingly, through a material the speed may be reduced due to refraction (experimentally, it may even be paused briefly).

[Tamrin]

Scientists Stop Light in 'Trapped Rainbow'

[Excerpt - Article by Andrea Thompson, livescience.com, 14 November 2007 - Linked Above]

Scientists have worked out how to bring beams of light to a screeching halt inside a material that would separate the light into its constituent colors, creating a rainbow—a trapped rainbow.

To bring light to a stop from its usual approximately 670 million mph (1.08 billion km/h) pace is no easy feat, and scientists have been working on the problem for years in hopes of revolutionizing how information is stored and sent.

To tackle the challenge, physicist Ortwin Hess of the University of Surrey and his colleagues have devised a theoretical means to stop light using what are known as metamaterials, or materials whose properties depend on their structure and not the composition of the material.

[Tamrin]

Trapped light pulses interact

[Excerpt - Article, trnmag.com - Linked Above]

Researchers at Harvard University have showed that light pulses can be trapped and held in a rubidium vapor and made to interact with one another.

The method could eventually be used in quantum cryptographic and quantum computing schemes. Quantum cryptography and quantum computers use attributes of particles like photons to represent the 1s and 0s of binary numbers. Quantum cryptography promises perfectly secure communications. Quantum computers can theoretically solve certain very large problems many orders of magnitude faster than classical computers, including those that underpin today's security methods.

[maximus]

Sept 13, 2009 18:11:44 GMT 10 Tamrin said:

From time to time, one comes across ill-informed debates over whether or not the speed of light is a constant. With a few caveats, the speed of light, regardless of frequency, is 299,792,458 metres per second in a vacuum. Unsurprisingly, through a material the speed may be reduced due to refraction (experimentally, it may even be paused briefly).

You must have seen my debate with RH (as paulh) over the speed of light. I pointed out that it is constant in a vacuum, a point which apparently was not taken into consideration by my esteemed opponent. I miss your participation over there, Philip.

[Tamrin]

Sept 14, 2009 1:39:46 GMT 10 @maximus said:

You must have seen my debate with RH (as paulh) over the speed of light. I pointed out that it is constant in a vacuum, a point which apparently was not taken into consideration by my esteemed opponent. I miss your participation over there, Philip.

Indeed. Obviously PH is RH (same syntax, fantasies, pursuits and avoidances). He is floridly delusional and has written of what others would usually suppose to be his apparently common experience of auditory hallucinations; he has even spoken of flying a unicorn around the North Pole!? Yet folk on several masonic fora take him seriously. Speaking for myself, to participate I insist on credibility and civility (I get more than enough delusional thinking from my psychotic clients at work, although it is usually more believable).

[maximus]

Sept 14, 2009 7:02:03 GMT 10 Tamrin said:

Sept 14, 2009 1:39:46 GMT 10 @maximus said:

You must have seen my debate with RH (as paulh) over the speed of light. I pointed out that it is constant in a vacuum, a point which apparently was not taken into consideration by my esteemed opponent. I miss your participation over there, Philip.

Indeed. Obviously PH is RH (same syntax, fantasies, pursuits and avoidances). He is floridly delusional and has written of what others would usually suppose to be his apparently common experience of auditory hallucinations; he has even spoken of flying a unicorn around the North Pole!? Yet folk on several masonic fora take him seriously. Speaking for myself, to participate I insist on credibility and civility (I get more than enough delusional thinking from my psychotic clients at work, although it is usually more believable).

I'm afraid I've caused him to delete his paulh account. Couldn't handle the debate.

[Tamrin]

Sept 15, 2009 2:48:18 GMT 10 @maximus said:

I'm afraid I've caused him to delete his paulh account. Couldn't handle the debate.

I see there is now the old attempt to discredit Einstein. I had posted the link below in response to the same point, raised by the same poster, at the same forum!? It's now all to silly for me to bother posting there. M.W. Bro. Desaguliers and his Enlightenment Brethren, many having been fellows of the Royal Society, would be aghast at much of the nonsense now being espoused under the banner of Freemasonry.

Jul 5, 2008 20:06:26 GMT 10 Tamrin said:

Was Einstein a fake?
Cosmos article by John Farrell, Issue 11, October 2006

(Excerpt)

There's nothing quite like Einstein and his theories of relativity to bring out the doubters, the cranks and the outright crackpots. Do they have a point? Was Einstein a fake?

[maximus]

I'll repost this over there. I was going to put up an image of the apron, but I could only find the "modified" one.

[Tamrin]

Sept 15, 2009 8:19:18 GMT 10 @maximus said:

I'll repost this over there. I was going to put up an image of the apron, but I could only find the "modified" one.

Here 'tis:

Oct 7, 2008 6:16:34 GMT 10 Tamrin said:

This “apron” was item 76 in the catalogue of the Gold of the Pharaohs exhibition (1988 / 1989), provided by the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation (1988 / 1989). It is from the burial of Shoshenq II and is dissimilar to masonic aprons. The description on page 123 reads:

76
BELT AND APRON FRAME
Electrum, red and blue paste
Length: Belt 1.1m Apron 40cm
JE 72168

This rarely preserved item of apparel was found upon the king’s body. It comprises a belt of electrum decorated with a chequer motif which fastens at the rear, with an attached apron frame at the front, also in electrum. The bottom of latter carries a stylised floral design while the sides are inlaid alternatively with small squares of red and blue paste. The apron frame originally supported a netting decorated with gold beads and cloisonné floral motifs. A small gold amulet was originally attached to the belt, depicting a swallow with the sign shen on its back, the combination of which may be read “great circle”.

The details of this kilt differ slightly from those shown worn by the kings in reliefs and upon statuary, which may indicate some mortuary connection for this example. It resembles the apron worn by the figure on the exterior of the lid of Merenptah’s sarcophagus lid, reused by Psusennes I, and also those shown in the frieze of objects depicted on the inside of Middle Kingdom coffins.

[maximus]

Thanks, I'll put it on my Photobucket for future use. ;D