Heresy For Beginners

And to the Aside

Maybe I can answer my own question now.

Why are photons limited to the speed of light if they have no mass?

As I understand it Einstein thought that the speed of light was the universal speed limit because at that speed mass becomes infinite. Of course, zero is a kind of infinte so anything with zero mass also has infinite mass and travels at ligthtspeed by definition. (Is that coherent?)

The other thing, of course, is that photons also travel at lightspeed by definition, being by their nature light itself.

I think I've just remembered that the speed of light can vary as well, so that doesn't seem to be such a good frequency from which to measure all other time.

I'm more confused than ever!

posted by Rowland @ Monday, August 01, 2005 7 comments

Time's up!

Just for the sake of expalnation, the first three posts below this one refer back to the fourth one below this one, which was an essay I had to write about 2-3 years ago about God and Time.

As you may have guessed, the issue still engages me.

posted by Rowland @ Monday, August 01, 2005 0 comments