Speed of light

[Bread_of_Life]

Tess.

This is off topic, but I've always wondered: if an airplane is traveling faster than the speed of light, and turns it's headlights on...will the beams shoot out? Or stay directly in front of the lightsource?

Good question. Firstly it's worth noting that travel over the speed of light in a vacuum is not usually possible, so I wouldn't worry about this happening in real life.

However, it is possible to travel above the speed of light, it's been done, and we've seen what happens to light that's given off. Impossible I hear you cry?]

Well, no, it's not. The speed of light in a vacuum (3.02 x 10^8 m/s) is the fastest it's possible to go. BUT, the speed of light in other media, say, glass, is attainable by real life things, and surpassable. If you accelerate a particle to very high speeds (near the speed of light in a vacuum), then make that particle pass through a chunk of glass (or other see-through material), it will, while going through the glass, be going faster than the speed of light in that medium.

What happens to light given off is a sort of "sonic boom", but with light. Just as the sound that a plane generates is "left behind" when the plane surpasses the speed of sound, and creates a sonic boom - the light that a particle is generating gets left behind, and creates a light boom, when that particle goes past the speed of light in any particular medium.

This effect is called "Cherenkov Radiation", and has been used to detect very small but fast particles. A visible flash of light occurs when the particle goes through the medium, which is equivalent to the particle leaving behind the light it creates, just as a plane does the sound it creates.

[Bread_of_Life]

When you state that particles can exceed the speed of light

[Bread_of_Life]

Those hard questions that can

[Remnantrob]

Sorry to get off the subject but i heard that the rotation of the earth's axis is slowing down. and because of this people who keep acurate time of the earth have to shed of a second every year . if the earth is a million or billion years old then wouldn't u have to factor this information into the equation. Imagine a million or billion seconds added to the speed of the earths rotation. wouldn't animals and ppl just be flying off of the earth surface....great theory for the extinction of dinosaurs. Just curious about the info....you guys may continue with the light topic now.

Rob

[Gerioke]

Sorry to get off the subject but i heard that the rotation of the earth's axis is slowing down.  and because of this people who keep acurate time of the earth have to shed of a second every year .  if the earth is a million or billion years old then wouldn't u have to factor this information into the equation.  Imagine a million or billion seconds added to the speed of the earths rotation.  wouldn't animals and ppl just be flying off of the earth surface....great theory for the extinction of dinosaurs.  Just curious about the info....you guys may continue with the light topic now.

Rob

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I heard that theory too. It also explains why people lived to be 900 years old as well

[Gerioke]

I think on average the earth

[Bread_of_Life]

horizoneast

You

[Bread_of_Life]

Hitler seeking power, wrote in Mein Kampf, "... I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews. I am doing the Lord's work." Years later, when in power, he quoted those same words in a Reichstag speech in 1938.

Three years later he informed General Gerhart Engel: "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so." He never left the church, and the church never left him. Great literature was banned by his church, but his miserable Mein Kampf never appeared on the index of Forbidden Books. He was not excommunicated or even condemned by his church. Popes, in fact, contracted with Hitler and his fascist friends Franco and Mussolini, giving them veto power over whom the pope could appoint as a bishop in Germany, Spain, and Italy. The three thugs agreed to surtax the Catholics of these countries and send the money to Rome in exchange for making sure the state could control the church.

I would hardly call that entirely atheist, would you? Now Stalin, there was an atheist! But who cares, what relevance does it have to the discussion? Even if every single atheist in the world was as nasty or nastier than hitler and Stalin combined, then what would that tell us about the existence of a God? Nothing at all, I fear.

The reason I mentioned the genocides committed by the atheistic r

[Bread_of_Life]

But surprise - you never returned

[Bread_of_Life]

horizoneast

Actually Nik it does have relevance and again shows a pattern of your faith/belief system that allows you to accept concepts that are not scientifically verifiable -

You claimed horizoneast that you had posted an argument showing that my belief about the universe being uncaused was based on faith. That is what you claimed. In fact, what you really posted were assertions (not arguments, but assertions) that my belief in evolution was based on faith. So in fact, nowhere on this board have you yet come up with an argument to show that my beliefs about the universe being uncaused are based on faith, right? You've only claimed they are, not argued that they are.

I had quoted scientists who state that common ancestry is based on faith not evidence.

This doesn't constitute an argument, but rather a series of opinions. I don't trust anyone's opinion unless they can back it up with a coherent and rational argument. As you can see from all of my posts on this board, I *never* rely on quotes from famous people, or opinions, without also posting the evidence and argumentation to go along with them. I suggest therefore that you present real arguments, rather than opinions in the future.

The author makes a compelling argument that Hitler was indeed an atheist who patterned his view of ethics and morality on Darwinian principles