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The Speed of Light is NOT About Light

PBS Space Time · 7.1M views · 2015-10-07 · 12:46

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Overview

PBS Space Time argues that the speed of light is better understood as the speed of causality, the universal limit on how fast cause and effect propagate. Light travels at that speed because it is massless, but the limit itself is a property of spacetime.

On Hacker News

HN commenters send people to it whenever a thread confuses the speed of light with a light-specific limit, and several say it deepened their understanding of relativity.

Recommended by 8 HN people across 8 months · HN mentions 2017–2023

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What people said

tzs · 2020-11 · Strong recommendation

There's an episode of PBS Space Time about this, "The Speed of Light is NOT About Light" [1], which comes pretty close to making the same points you are making. It might be useful to watch this earlier episode, "Are Space and Time an Illusion?" [2], first. There is a later episode (or maybe a couple of them) that go into how interactions with the Higgs field make it so things with mass travel slowed than the speed of causality. To tie back to the warp drive news, they have an episode that would be a good place to start on warp drives, "Is The Alcubierre Warp Drive Possible?" [3]. There's also "Superluminal Time Travel + Time Warp Challenge Answer" [4], and "Will Wormholes Allow Fast Interstellar Travel?" [5]. A non-warp unknown physics drive that comes up a lot also got an episode, "The EM Drive: Fact or Fantasy?" [6]. There is at least one episode covering interstellar travel without using any unknown physics, "5 REAL Possibilities for Interstellar Travel" [7]. The scope of the series is basically anything vaguely connected to astronomy, cosmology, and quantum mechanics, and the episodes are all pretty short (5-12 minutes), so it is a great thing to watch when you've got a short wait for something. Here's the series home page [8], and their YouTube channel [9]. Also on the PBS streaming app, for those who like to get their physics on their big screen TVs. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK] [4] [LINK] [5] [LINK] [6] [LINK] [7] [LINK] [8] [LINK] [9] [LINK]

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willis936 · 2020-10 · Strong recommendation

PBS SpaceTime has a treatise on relativity. There are a dozen videos worth watching on this topic alone. The video about “the speed of causality” is the one that caused me to level up: [VIDEO] Here is a 12 video playlist on relativity: [LINK] Here is a six video series on measuring space and time: [LINK]

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shagie · 2022-08 · Recommendation

As an aside, the PBS space time video The Speed of Light is NOT About Light : [VIDEO] As an aside to the aside - as I rewatch it I quickly notice how young he looks (and then note the date is 2015 on there - one of the early ones and the production is less refined). You may also like The Geometry of Causality [LINK]

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