Understanding the Electron (2015)

arxiv.org

2 pointssrean3 comments

moves at the speed of light even at rest! Wow... this is enticing.

It's been argued that light travels at the speed of light in vacuum when it is travelling slower through an optically denser material. The stated logic is, and its Physically correct, that the photons are travelling at the same speed as that of light in vacuum, getting absorbed by the molecules of the medium and re-emitted after a small delay.

Semantically, I don't find it convincing. If a rabbit sleeps and pauses every few yards to end up being slower on average than a turtle, I wouldn't call its speed whatever it is that it travels at in between frequent sleeps.

the quantum world does not have much overlap with common sense, for sure.

Towards the end of the paper, "space and time need not be physical" but instead, "uniquely consistent constructs by which one can describe events" ... so does this mean that space and time simply make the math work?

A PhD bud of mine says jokingly, skip the math, particles can eat each other, swap energy and sometimes emit a LOTof energy. Space is not what we think, apparently time isn't either

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