Timeline for Why does light not slow down?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 30, 2016 at 21:08 | history | protected | ACuriousMind♦ | ||
| Feb 19, 2015 at 17:25 | history | edited | CuriousWebDeveloper | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 19, 2015 at 15:28 | vote | accept | CuriousWebDeveloper | ||
| Feb 19, 2015 at 15:25 | history | edited | CuriousWebDeveloper | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 19, 2015 at 12:00 | comment | added | Qmechanic♦ | Possible duplicates: physics.stackexchange.com/q/466/2451 , physics.stackexchange.com/q/11820/2451 , physics.stackexchange.com/q/153904/2451 , physics.stackexchange.com/q/20289/2451 and links therein. | |
| Feb 19, 2015 at 11:59 | history | edited | Qmechanic♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 19, 2015 at 10:39 | answer | added | mikuszefski | timeline score: 4 | |
| Feb 19, 2015 at 10:08 | comment | added | userLTK | I was going to say - new experiments using a Bose-Einstein condensate and slowing light down significantly, but, that stuff is over my head. | |
| Feb 19, 2015 at 10:00 | comment | added | userLTK | I'm not sure this is a good answer, but being pure energy with no rest mass, light can't slow down. It can interact with what it bumps into, so in theory with such a container light would either bounce off or get absorbed into and excite the electrons, basically turn into heat.It's goes back to the conservation of energy law. If you stop light, it essentially becomes heat which radiates more light. The form of the energy can change, but not the speed of the light. Though there are some new experiments | |
| Feb 19, 2015 at 7:01 | comment | added | lagrange103 | Bear in mind it is massless so probably doesn't behave in ways you would expect. It also might help to consider that in a vacuum it is impossible to slow light down. What we traditionally consider 'light speed', $c$, is in fact the speed of a massless particle. | |
| Feb 19, 2015 at 6:13 | history | asked | CuriousWebDeveloper | CC BY-SA 3.0 |