Ah, good. A discussion.Shawn Henry wrote: ↑November 29th, 2022, 12:17 pmI love discussing these things. I would have responded to your previous comment, but I don't remember your previous Michaelson-Morley comments or what thread that was. That being said, I got a B in physics, so just know that I acknowledge my low status when it comes to physics.
I don't know that there would have to be a medium for light to travel through. I don't even know whether scientists agree on their being an ether. Obviously, any experiment on earth has an atmosphere for a medium, even vacuums are not perfect vacuums.
If I remember correctly, it is said that light emitted from a train traveling 200 mph is not faster than light emitted from a stationary position. So, if light is being slowed down, what is doing it if not a medium.
I don't remember to what degree their equipment measured. It would have to be well below 1/10th of 1%, because the MilkyWay is traveling at 230 kps and light is 300,000 kps.
Anyway, I'm smart enough to know not to rely on my own understanding of physics. What I try to do is find those who claim they know on both sides and listen to their explanations. I'm a pretty good judge of what side is winning a debate, or so I think.
Scientists agree that light propagation is not enabled by a medium such as ether. The reason why, is because unlike waves in water, for instance, where the energy is carried by the water, light is energy in and of itself (electro-magnetic). It doesn’t need a carrier.
Now, light does slow down in various translucent media, such as air and water, but this is because of the scattering effect of the light due to the molecules/atoms it encounters in the transport medium. I.e., the wave front of the light slows down, but the internal path of the individual photons in the media remains at C, to my understanding.
In the Michael-Morley experiments and subsequent follow-up experiments they found no difference in the speed of light beamed in the direction of the earths orbit vs the light beamed perpendicular to it. It makes no difference whether you do the experiment stationary, from a moving train, or a combination of both.
Now the air-medium the light is traveling through will slow the light wave-front velocity, but the slow down will be the same regardless of the vector of the light, because the medium is the same. Therefore you will see no velocity differential between the orthogonal light beams.
So, who’s winning the debate?