It has been said that: were an electromagnetic wave to propagate at any speed other than the constant c in a vacuum, one of two things would happen... either it would travel at a speed less than c, and quickly fizzle out of strength as it traveled (not so, because we see light from all corners of the universe).... or it would travel faster than c, and as a consequence, would quickly mount to infinite strength as time progressed (not so, because that would violate conservation of energy).

So what we have here boils down to:
1.(speed < c) = light fizzles out of strength as distance increases
2.(speed > c) = light quickly mounts in strength, unbounded as distance increases
3.(speed = c) = electromagnetic radiation as we observe it to behave
Does any of this ring a bell at all?

My question comes into play when we take a look at the nuclear forces. Weak bosons have mass and as a consequence, they naturally travel slower than light speed. This means they are short ranged. But the strong force actually gets STRONGER AS DISTANCE INCREASES hence we see no stray quarks ... meaning what...? Do strong force mediators travel at greater than light speed?

• Light moving faster or slover than c? - alexander - October 10, 2001 - 20:43 UTC
  • This is how Einstein arrived at relativity... - smartguy - October 10, 2001 - 22:13 UTC