K9APE’S BOOKSHELF

By Shel Epstein, K9APE

 

FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT

THE STORY OF A SCIENTIFIC SPECULATION

By Joăo Magueijo

 

I do not often study books about cosmology (the astrophysical study of the history, structure, and constituent dynamics of the universe) because I lack the mathematical imagination to comprehend space beyond the third dimension.  Still I was intrigued by the title of Joăo Magueijo’s book and started to read it.  Then I could not put it down.

 

Magueijo is a Portuguese physicist working in London.  His book comprises three parts; namely, 1) a short history of cosmology, 2) a light discussion of Einstein’s Theories of Relativity and 3) Magueijo’s struggle to advance his theory of Variable Speed of Light (VSL) or light that travels at a speed other than c = 300,000,000 meters/second.  You do not have to be a physicist or engineer to understand or enjoy his concept.  You do, however, have to know a little about the political history of modern cosmology that Magueijo does not provide.

 

The study of modern cosmology dates from 1687 with the publication of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica that contained tools for predicting trajectories of heavenly bodies and other masses with more-or-less clockwork accuracy.  Newton’s Three Laws of Motion (law of inertia, F=ma and conservation of momentum in a system) became cornerstones in some sectors of Christianity because they provided reasonably accurate results and seemed to support a theological view that God had created an ordered and predictable universe.

 

Matters rested there until around 1900, when improvements in instrumentation and new experiments began to disclose anomalies between observations and predictions based on Newton’s laws.  Simultaneously, a number of theoreticians began developing mathematical tools – some of which had no apparent practical application.  These tools would later become foundations for what was to become Einstein’s Theories of Relativity, which resolved some of those anomalies.

 

For reasons unknown to me, more than a few of these theoreticians were Jewish and of these, the most important were born, studied or taught in Germany or Denmark.  They would later become targets of the Third Reich’s racial purity laws that forced them from their professorships into exile.  They were replaced by teachers of German Mathematics – or to put it another way, mathematics that was Aryan and practical – not Jewish and theoretical.  The Law of Unintended Consequences took hold and the United States became the beneficiary of an influx of some of the world’s best scientific minds.

 

The best known of these Jewish theoreticians immigrate to America was, of course, Albert Einstein, who had won a Nobel Prize in 1921 (www.nobel.se) for his explanation of the photoelectric effect based on work he had done around 1902 while serving as an examiner in the Swiss Patent Office.  Having deduced the relationship between energy and matter (E = mc2) and knowing of the Michelson – Morley experiment that proved the speed of light was constant in all reference frames plus the mathematics of Hendrik Lorentz, Einstein went on to propound his Special and General Theories of Relativity.  However, he did not receive a Nobel Prize and his Theories were ridiculed as Jewish science.  Nevertheless, Einstein lived to see his Theories adopted as establishment science.

 

Einstein’s Theories of Relativity can be simplified for present purposes as stating that nothing can travel faster that the speed of light and that the faster an object moves, the slower its clock ticks.  [By contrast, Epstein’s Theory of Relativity states that the older a clock gets the faster it ticks; but, that diversion is for a later article.]  Magueijo provides an excellent description of Einstein’s Theories that you should be able to comprehend.

 

Einstein’s Theories are based on a premise that the speed of light in space, c, is a constant.  This premise is a Holy Grail of the Physics establishment.  What would happen if it was false – e.g. that the speed of light in space, c, was not constant?  Or better still, what would happen to a physicist who proposed such a theory?  And that is exactly what Magueijo did.

 

The better part of Magueijo’s book contains a florid description of his career ups and downs as he seeks to explore the consequences of his theory, disclose it to his peers, acquire tenure at Great Britain’s Imperial College and publish papers in so-called respected scientific journals.  As Magueijo describes, first the establishment ridicules you, then it tries to repudiate your work and finally a senior member of impeccable reputation will try to claim priority for your work.

 

Magueijo parallels his experience with that of Einstein’s proposals of his Theories of Relativity.  He demonstrates that the battles over VSL were not over Christian science or Jewish science or Portuguese science (none of which exist); but, between establishment science and innovation.  Or to put it another way, the real battle is between those trying to save their reputations and those trying to acquire their reputations as innovative scientists.  I recommend that you do a web search on some of the people Magueijo names to learn more about their careers.

 

Magueijo describes some conclusions that others and he have reached based on his VSL concepts that were first published in 1997 (his book is ©2003).  I, like most of you, lack the background to judge whether he is correct.  However, I note that it is only for the last 116 years that we have had the tools and technology to measure c accurately and therefore it is possible that c may have changed or may be changing or may be different in another part of the universe.  So while it still is too early to judge whether Magueijo’s work will stand the test of time, I nevertheless heartedly recommend that you read his book.

 

Finally, if you’re planning to take an FCC license test, I counsel that you continue to calculate your answers based on c = 300,000,000 meters/second.