iv heard about it being slowed down in certain mediums, can any one ellborate?
2007-02-25 22:14:03 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
It is impossible to slow down the speed of light. But in some denser mediums it can takes some time to penetrating through that medium. In that cases we see like the light is slowed down. But it is not true. It having its original velocity. It's all our assumption only.
2007-02-25 22:18:44 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
It can be slowed down. When it enters a medium of a higher or low density, the speed of light will slow down or speed up. Nice question by the way. 5 stars!
2007-02-26 06:19:56 · answer #2 · answered by the3_littlepigs 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The speed of light is the only known constant in the universe (a postulate of the theory of relativity). Thus it cannot slow down. But if light moves through a dense medium, its path will be bent, the photons will collide with the medium,... So the time it takes for the entire beam of light to move through the medium will increase.
2007-02-26 06:22:55 · answer #3 · answered by bnt 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You can slow down the speed at which light travels, but not the speed of light. It's like asking to slow down 30mph....it won't be 30mph if it was slowed down would it?
If you pass the light through a very dense medium the ight particles would slow down whilst passing through the medium but be the same speed once it penetrates through to the other side.
2007-02-26 06:24:56 · answer #4 · answered by Steivan 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You can change the speed of light as it is dependent on what it travels through. The 'speed of light' everyone talks about, is the speed of light through a vacuum and this is a constant. Through the Earth's atmosphere it is a little slower and through water slower still.
In sodium at -272 degrees C light travels at 38 mph (quite a bit slower than the 80,000 miles per second in a vacuum). In a Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium you can bring light to a complete standstill!
2007-02-26 08:17:29 · answer #5 · answered by The Truth 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Let me clarify this first...the Speed of light under the condition of an empty space meaning NO OBSTACLE!!! is 300,000kms/sec.
Now..if the main point of your question is the possibility of slowing down this speed...the answer is NO!.
the Speed of Light is CONSTANT!!
THE WAVE WILL TRAVEL AT THE SAME SPEED ..however it is the wavelength that varies..as in from wavelength to wavelength. two mediums will exhibit a different wavelength.
making it appear that the light is slowing down but like a car moving at constant speed the only way to slow this down is to block it which is totally different from slowing down.
Red light has different wavelength
as opposed to
Ultraviolet rays
When light passes thru atmospheric barrier like solar wind..the speed of light seemed to slow down but in reality this light is deflected creating a change of direction ...like crisscrossing from outer space.
WHAT WE SEE AS SLOWING DOWN HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SPEED BUT THE medium it is passing thru..
Through a transparent or translucent material medium, like glass or air, it may appear to have a different speed than in a vacuum; the ratio of c to the observed phase velocity (which may be both smaller or larger than c) is called the refractive index of the medium. Changes of gravity, however, warp the space the light has to travel through, making it appear to curve around massive objects. This gives rise to the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, in which large assemblies of matter can refract light from far away sources, so as to produce multiple images and similar optical distortions.
To give you more scientific explanation to cover other comparison I suggest you click on the following sites.
Speed of light - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The speed of light in a vacuum is an important physical constant denoted by the ... of lights ahead were shifted toward the violet end of the spectrum and of those ...
Quick Links
Speed of light - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3.2 Technical impossibility of hyper-light-speed travel ... of lights ahead were shifted toward the violet end of the spectrum and of those ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_speed
Speed of Light
... radiation -- from radio waves to x-rays -- travel at the speed of light. ... how do we know that the speed of light is always almost 300,000 kilometers per ...www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/waves_particles/lightspeed-1.html
I hope these clear the path for the light of knowledge to you...
2007-02-26 06:55:17 · answer #6 · answered by Araceli S 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes it is. For example light in a refractive medium has a speed less than its value in vacuum by a factor equal to the refractive index of the material
2007-02-26 06:19:14 · answer #7 · answered by physicist 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course.
The speed of light is only constant in free space.
In a medium it is not constant at all. And it is always lower than the free space value in a medium, sometimes very significantly so.
2007-02-26 07:04:35 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
of course....you just need to let light pass through a denser medium like water or glass...when you let it go from a medium to a lighter one(like water to air,air to vacuum),it moves faster..but you cant make it go faster than 3*10^8 m/s however hard you try.
2007-02-26 06:30:26 · answer #9 · answered by poornima l 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It will not be light anymore if you reduce the speed of it.
2007-02-26 06:22:31 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋