Thread: yes im still going to ask questions..

Why does a photon have a speed limit? and what gives a photon its speed limit?

understanding alot of the data i just read on this forum, a light bulb clicked in my head. then i looked at the light bulb and wondered does a light bulb release a higher gravity wave when i turn it on. I think it was yesterday when i watched about 40 vids of science stuff i seen a professer doing an experiment which involved laser beams producing gravity waves. so i wondered again how could we tell if the speed of gravity actually slows down the speed of light? and since light is a partice/wave it must produce a tiny gravity wave. therefore could gravity be c, and light being the fastest particle we can see, be limited by its own gravity?

another way of saying it, If gravity travels at c, how could anything travel faster than gravity? Instead of calling c the speed of light assuming photons limit speed of all matter. why not call it the acctual force that limits speed, gravity? c= the velocity of a gravity wave.

I did some research yes.. and found nothing.. but if anyone has heard this before, please inform the ignorant student...

Originally Posted by Brandon

Why does a photon have a speed limit? and what gives a photon its speed limit?

See Maxwell's Equations: Maxwell's equations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Photons (light) travels at c -- no faster, no slower, no matter what frame of reference the measurement is made (Relativity).

Im kind of leaning toward the reason of the universal speed limit. was the speed of light determined as really the speed of gravity? resulting nothing can travel faster than the speed of gravity without an infinate ammount of energy? It seems that gravity could be viewed as the primary factor, not a proton. im just speculating correct me if im wrong.

is there a term somewhere called "gravity resistance?"

Originally Posted by Brandon

Why does a photon have a speed limit? and what gives a photon its speed limit?

understanding alot of the data i just read on this forum, a light bulb clicked in my head. then i looked at the light bulb and wondered does a light bulb release a higher gravity wave when i turn it on. I think it was yesterday when i watched about 40 vids of science stuff i seen a professer doing an experiment which involved laser beams producing gravity waves. so i wondered again how could we tell if the speed of gravity actually slows down the speed of light? and since light is a partice/wave it must produce a tiny gravity wave. therefore could gravity be c, and light being the fastest particle we can see, be limited by its own gravity?

another way of saying it, If gravity travels at c, how could anything travel faster than gravity? Instead of calling c the speed of light assuming photons limit speed of all matter. why not call it the acctual force that limits speed, gravity? c= the velocity of a gravity wave.

I did some research yes.. and found nothing.. but if anyone has heard this before, please inform the ignorant student...

The limit arises from the fact that c is an invariant speed. It doesn't matter whether you consider this as the speed of light, the speed of gravity, or just the speed of any massless influence. What counts is the invariance of this speed.

By invariant, we mean that it never changes and that everyone measures it to have the same value relative to themselves.

It can be shown logically that any invariant speed becomes the speed limit for the universe. (and by extension you can have only one invariant speed.)

Thank you. Im just going to pause my brain on physics for a while, get some sleep, and be back in a week.. I have seriously read more in the last 4 days than i did all through highschool and the more answers i get the more questions i get so i just need a break and reboot.. I should be going back to college next month, so i will bug the shit out of my physics teacher haha.. I was the best math student in at my highschool. they made the "smartest" students take a complicated math test my jr. year and i had the best scores in 5 years, so i will comprehend.. its just remembering the formulas and values will be the hardest part..

Originally Posted by Brandon

I should be going back to college next month, . . . I was the best math student in at my highschool. .

I'm very curious about what is being taught today in high schools and colleges. Maybe you can help me understand. Did your honors senior high school class make it to Intro to Calculus?

Good question.. though it doesnt belong it this thread i will tell you.. My high school was "shity" in comparison to many other schools. The only good thing about it was my Algebra teacher. It was called Algebra 2 AA. The school was going through a rough period, the building was actually divided into 4 schools.. Science was considered an easy A because the teachers barely gave a dam.. I was the only student in the whole class that knew what string theory was. but yes they taught the scientific method i just kinda forgot about it. Then the beginning of my sr year I dropped out. Mainly because my fav teacher, or favorite adult in my life was gone. I believe i was in algebra 3. I got my GED about 2 years ago. I got a 100 on the math section and was the first one done. Though i never took a calculus class, i passed the calculus section on my placement test for college haha.. so there you have it.. I went from acing adv algebra, to business calculus.

Originally Posted by Brandon

I got my GED about 2 years ago. I got 100 on the math section and was the first one done.

Good for you!

Thank You. I am rather proud of it haha.. I just need to expand my knowledge and wisdom... I do want to keep asking questions mainly because I like this forum.

SO.... What else in the universe is known to travel at c?

Originally Posted by Brandon

SO.... What else in the universe is known to travel at c?

It depends what you mean by "known".

Massless particles and gravity travels at c.

Haha speedfreak I just realized your picture was a gas cloud giving the finger haha nice. If string theory is correct. Does that mean every theory and more actually happens in another universe? Could there really be a universe that doesn't have friction? Or gravity? Or photons? How is it considered a theory if it has no way to test an experiment? (From what I've heard). I used to be obsessed with that idea.

Since space is expanding, isn't all matter expanding with it? Is matter expanding too? Seams like it would have to right?

Originally Posted by Brandon

Since space is expanding, isn't all matter expanding with it? Is matter expanding too? Seams like it would have to right?

Why? The density/concentration of matter in the universe is declining on average as space expands. Clumps of matter, galaxies specifically, are growing further apart but not expanding in themselves. That's how we discovered that the universe was expanding in the first place.

Is there no space in an atom? If space expands anywhere it would have to expand everywhere and matter is .99% space. Right?

Originally Posted by Brandon

Is there no space in an atom? If space expands anywhere it would have to expand everywhere and matter is .99% space. Right?

99% seems more likely than .99% but I take your point. I'm not a physicist, but I suspect the answer has to do with the exponential difference between the force of gravity, which is what keeps things like galaxies together, versus the force of electromagnetism, which holds things like molecules and atoms together. Electromagnetism is orders of magnitude stronger than gravity, so we can't expect these two things to react the same way to the expansion of the universe. That's my very, very naive thinking on it. Contradictions by more knowledgeable folks very much welcome.

Yea sorry about the .99 I didn't even see it cuz I'm usin my phone. What other evidence is there that the universe is expanding? Besides red shift in light. Is there any?

This is a good place to start:

Evidence for the Big Bang