People that know about science.

Discussion in 'General' started by BAkEd_ZombIe, Feb 23, 2008.

  1. #1 BAkEd_ZombIe, Feb 23, 2008
    Hey first off i'm high so sorry for a stupid question. But i'm wondering if light has the highest speed how come it can only go so far. Light can't run out of fuel so shouldn't it just constantly be rapidly moving? I don't know.
     
  2. #2 a2stoner, Feb 23, 2008
    Yeah dude it is always moving...
     
  3. #3 Vicious, Feb 23, 2008
    It only takes one little question like that to totally send my mind away for the day. I'll be thinking about demensions, time and all kinds of shit now.
     
  4. #4 Dreadlocker, Feb 23, 2008
  5. #5 Palmer Eldritch, Feb 23, 2008
    well I'm no physicist, but I believe that if light appears to end at any certain point it is because it is not a focused beam and is subject to refraction which at a certain magnitude dissipates that stream of photons into mere background radiation.

    If it does reach a destination we cannot see, its because we live on such a small timescale and observable point of view in comparison to the properties of light....
     
  6. #6 mushroomsatsuji, Feb 23, 2008
    You see the stars in the sky?

    Theres you answer
     
  7. #7 sm666, Feb 23, 2008
    Light gets absorbed by stuff, it can loose energy, but it will travel forever unimpeded. Think about it we can still "see" the oldest light there is in the form of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
     
  8. #8 Palmer Eldritch, Feb 23, 2008
    ah yes, you can forget about that redshift. the source for much of the light we see is moving away from us and what we observed is stretched allowing only the longest of wavelengths to be observable to us.

    I can't wait until the proposed moon radio telescopes are built sometime after 2025, we ought to be able to observe a much greater band of radiation than we have access to now.
     
  9. #9 BAkEd_ZombIe, Feb 23, 2008
    thanks everyone for the answers. all make sense espicially you Palmer definatly could have some awsome conversations.
     
  10. #10 Anony, Feb 23, 2008
    Yea, some good replies.
    I was just vaporizing with an MS patient the other night, and he was explaining to me how it is the moon can glow, without us actually seeing the light that travels to and from it.
    Was very interesting, loved the lunar eclipse the other night.
     
  11. #11 Palmer Eldritch, Feb 23, 2008
    well you're welcome Baked Zombie. I certainly can't say I'm always the best source of info, but I love talking about all things science when I can.
     
  12. #12 thesoftparade, Feb 23, 2008
    light will fade on earth because there's a lot of stuff that absobs light, but if you had ideal conditions (ie. a perfect vaccum) the light would travel forever
     

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