Variable Speed of Light
In conventional physics, the speed of light in a vacuum is assumed to be a constant. However, theories exist which postulate that the speed of light is not a constant. The interpretation of this statement is as follows.
The speed of light is a dimensional quantity and so, as has been emphasized in this context by João Magueijo, it cannot be measured. Measurable quantities in physics are, without exception, dimensionless, although they are often constructed as ratios of dimensional quantities. For example, when you measure the height of a mountain you really measure the ratio of its height to the length of a meter stick. The conventional SI system of units is based on seven basic dimensional quantities, namely distance, mass, time, electric current, thermodynamic temperature, amount of substance, and luminous intensity. These units are defined to be independent and so cannot be described in terms of each other. As an alternative to using a particular system of units, one can reduce all measurements to dimensionless quantities expressed in terms of ratios between the quantities being measured and various fundamental constants such as Newton's constant, the speed of light and Planck's constant; physicists can define at least 26 dimensionless constants which can be expressed in terms of these sorts of ratios and which are currently thought to be independent of one another. By manipulating the basic dimensional constants one can also construct the Planck time, Planck length and Planck energy which make a good system of units for expressing dimensional measurements, known as Planck units.
Magueijo's proposal used a different set of units, a choice which he justifies with the claim that some equations will be simpler in these new units. In the new units he fixes the fine structure constant, a quantity which some people, using units in which the speed of light is fixed, have claimed is time-dependent. Thus in the system of units in which the fine structure constant is fixed, the observational claim is that the speed of light is time-dependent.
While it may be mathematically possible to construct such a system, it is not clear what additional explanatory power or physical insight such a system would provide, assuming that it does indeed accord with existing empirical data.
Read more about this topic: Faster-than-light
Famous quotes containing the words variable, speed and/or light:
“Walked forth to ease my pain
Along the shore of silver streaming Thames,
Whose rutty bank, the which his river hems,
Was painted all with variable flowers,”
—Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)
“Spig Wead: I’ve been thinking what a heel I’ve been about you and about my own kids. I don’t know, when I do something, I go all the way. Living. Gambling. Flying. I tap myself out. I guess that’s the way I want it to be. Maybe even the way I am.
Minne Wead: Star-spangled Spig. Damn the martinis, full speed ahead and don’t give up the ship.”
—Frank Fenton, William Wister Haines, co-scenarist, and John Ford. Spig Wead (John Wayne)
“The light struggled in through windows of oiled paper, but they read the word of God by it.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)