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Speed of light, sound, information, senses and imaginable universe

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January 4th, 2009 | by Steve | 673 views | 2 Comments | Log in |

“It is generally considered that it is impossible for any information or matter to travel faster than c, because it would travel backwards in time relative to some observers.”

Interesting isn’t it?

from: en.wikipedia.org

Let’s assume we have to measure the speed of an object and we are using 2 “instantaneous” triggers to generate a signal for the sense of our choice to indicate the object is at that position. We are very close to one of the points triggers and we expect the objecct to travel toward us passing first through the other trigger/position. If the signal is a light then the information transfer for this measurement is done at the speed of light. For a regular object with a speed much lower to the light speed we’ll se first the first light and then the second one close to us and if we note the time of the two flashes and we know the distance between triggers we can simply calculate the velocity of the object. If the speed of the object however, is comparable to the speed of information transfer then we have to adjust our basic formula and take into consideration the delay introduced by the limited speed of information until we know our object passed the first trigger. Now it gets funny:
If the object travels at the speed of information, then we’ll see the two lights on simultaneously which could mean that the object is in the two positions at the same time.
If the object exceed the speed of the information/signal then the object will appear as having a reversed motion: first we’ll se the light of the trigger close to us and then we’ll see the light of the first trigger activated. If we don’t suspect a speed exceeding the information transfer we could conclude that an object traveling at twice the speed of information is in fact traveling at the speed of info but in opposite direction. (So maybe when in real world we conclude something travelling at speed of light it might be the case if we use light for transmitting the info of the measurement that the object is traveling backwards at twice light speed?!).

Now, whatever observations we make, we make them based on the limited number of senses we got. It looks like, to increase accuracy we should use the sense where info is passed faster. A snail (if having any memory, calculations skills and interests in physics) will have still to use some olfactory/chemical sense and its associated low info transfer speed. A bat or owl or a blind human will have to base these deductions on sound speed. If that is the fastest speed they understand is the time distorted for them when they encounter objects traveling at supersonic speeds?

The fact that we perceive light and have some understanding of it could it mean there are no other means of passing info based on senses we don’t have? What experiments should we conduct to ensure that what we perceive as happening at light speed is not in fact a reversed process at twice light speed?

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