this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

For no reason. No one is saying that it is different, only that it's impossible to prove one way or the other. Light traveling the same speed in all directions, and light traveling at 2x c away from an observer and instantaneously on the return, and every other alternative that averages out to c for the round trip, are indistinguishable to any experiment we can conduct.

[–] FlyingSquid -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

And it's impossible to prove that just the exact right type of orange will double the speed of light.

But there's no reason to speculate either thing without a reason for the speculation. Your reason seems to be "I think it would be cool."

I don't think you realize it, but this is a very similar argument to "you can't prove God doesn't exist."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Take 30 seconds to at least glance at the article the other user posted. It's not just myself, there are plenty of very interested physicists who also find the unprovability of the one-way speed of light interesting.

I'm also not sure what your point about orange is supposed to be. Are you suggesting that there is a particular spectra of light that we cannot test?

My reason for being interested isn't just that I think it's "cool". I think it's fascinating that a fundamental underpinning of physics has such a gap in its experimental verifiability.

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

No, I'm saying it's just another version of Russel's Teapot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

It kind of is. It's just the thing being asserted without proof is the one-way speed of light. That you don't seem to find that interesting I guess is where we differ.