Some light reading.

     As I lay here, trying to stop my back from hurting long enough to fall asleep, I find myself pondering things that go way deeper than I normally operate.  It may be an ineffecient use of up time for my brain, but I can't stop the way my mind wanders sometimes.  So I'm going to spell it out here for two reasons:  1-I want to get these thoughts down in case they turn out to be important.  2-maybe it will give you, my loyal readers, some insight into how my mind functions (or doesn't function, as the case may be).

     Did you know that light is some seriously weird stuff?  Seriously.  People think of light like a bunch of laser beams or a blanket but it's not anything like that at all.  The speed of light (approx. 586,000 miles per second) is like the absolute speed limit of the universe.  Nothing can go faster than light because the energy required to move beyond it is basically infinite.

     Light is so weird that it is measured at "c" as in E=Mc(2).  Energy is equal to Mass times the speed of light (c) squared.  Well, the speed of light is a universal constant.  Meaning when light is measured, it ALWAYS reads as (approx.) 586,000 miles per second.  And here is the part that will blow your mind:

     Light will always be measured at this constant NO MATTER IN WHAT DIRECTION OR SPEED THE MEASURER MOVES IN RELATION TO THE BEAM OF LIGHT.

     This seems counterintuitive.  Think about two cars driving along a road, if they are going the same speed in the same direction, then from the point of view of either car, the other appears to be stopped.  If they are going in opposite directions, then each car will measure the other car as traveling at twice it's actual speed, because the measuring equipment is moving in relation to the object being measured.

     Light (well, really electromagnetic radiation, but we'll keep calling it light for short) is different, and it's the only thing in the universe that behaves this way.  If you launch a spaceship from point A traveling at 1/2 the speed of light, and then fired a laser beam along a parallel trajectory next to the ships flight path, the ship SHOULD measure the laser beam as 1/2c, because the speed of the equipment doing the measuring should impact how it measures the light.

     But it doesn't work that way.

     In our previous scenario, with the ship moving at 1/2c in a straight line, with the beam of light moving next to it, the people on the ship will measure light as moving at EXACTLY 'c' (586,000 mi/sec).

     This is mind boggling!  But it's true.

     I have a few theories on why this is, but the most interesting that I can come up with is that light exists outside of our normal time.  Since speed is a function of distance and time, the only way you can have a universal constant like 'c' is by mucking about with the equation that governs speed.

     Anyway.  I'm not a physicist or a mathmatician, and I'm pretty sure I've bored you all enough for one day.  So I will leave you with this.  I am reasonably intelligent, so if there is anyone who is an actual physicist or cosmologist* who wants to explain how this works to me, I'll be glad to listen and I'll do my level best to understand.

     Until tomorrow, loyal readers!

     *(not a hair and makeup artist, that's a cosmetologist, a cosmologist is someone who studies the universe and it's origins.  Just thought I'd clear that up for you.)