Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Answerer · 08-10-2002, 12:39 AM

So guys, is our universe now much younger or older if the speed of light had slowed over the past billions of years?

Shadowy Man · 08-10-2002, 07:58 AM

The Nature article states that there is a possibility that the fine-structure constant has changed about 1 part in 100,000 over
the past 6-10 billion years. So, even if this were due to a change in the speed of light, it's a very small effect, and wouldn't have too large an impact on the redshift/distance correlation.

Starboy · 08-10-2002, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Friar Bellows:
<strong>

How do you know that? Redshift.

How do you really know that? "Standard candles". I think supernovae (SN type 1a) are the standard candles that go out the furthest. Maybe the departures from linearity that we're seeing in the plot of redshift vs distance (the latter derived from SN1a standard candles) for high redshifts has something to do with a varying c? I dunno.

My point is that maybe we are seeing a "change in the spectrum of hydrogen with distance", but we're misinterpreting the data which could indicate this. Or maybe this effect is only detectable over cosmologically large distances. Once again, I dunno. I'll have to read their paper, so I can get confused even more.</strong>

Hi Friar,

I had a chance to read more on this topic. The change being measuring is small and difficult to detect. I do not have access to their latest publication so I have nothing to say about the claim that c is changing over time. As far as I know only researchers from one group have made all measurements. It would be nice if some other group could repeat the result.

One thing that I found interesting, the John Templeton Foundation was one source of funding the rest came from NSF and NASA.

If this is a real phenomenon I welcome it. It just means there is more to learn, something that is always desired by those who are curious.

Starboy

Friar Bellows · 08-10-2002, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shadowy Man:
<strong>So, even if this were due to a change in the speed of light, it's a very small effect, and wouldn't have too large an impact on the redshift/distance correlation.</strong>

OK, that seems to sink my wild speculation on the matter.

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08-10-2002, 12:39 AM	#21
Answerer Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 3,956	So guys, is our universe now much younger or older if the speed of light had slowed over the past billions of years?

08-10-2002, 07:58 AM	#22
Shadowy Man Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: A Shadowy Planet Posts: 7,585	The Nature article states that there is a possibility that the fine-structure constant has changed about 1 part in 100,000 over the past 6-10 billion years. So, even if this were due to a change in the speed of light, it's a very small effect, and wouldn't have too large an impact on the redshift/distance correlation.

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