kgreen93

Ok, that's reasonable. Since we are in the speculations forum, let's take it a step further. If the speed of light does vary slightly due to variations in gravity on earth, but the subtle changes are imperceptible, what would happen if we were observing a photon traveling at c as it traveled towards the event horizon of a black hole? As the gravity becomes more extreme, space-time dictates that time slows down. As an unaffected observer, would the beam of light continue to move at c, or would it exponentially decelerate as it approached? Or would the photon continue to cruise along at c in our eyes, therefore moving faster than c when compared to an object that is also undergoing the gravity induced space-time crunch? Side-note: I'm a biologist, not a physicist, so I don't really know anything about the specifics of this thought experiment. If photons carry mass, which I don't know whether or not they do, is it possible that a photon with a starting velocity of c would accelerate from the added force of extreme gravity as it became closer to the event horizon? Again, I welcome any and all discussion and help. Ok, I understand what you're referring to. I probably made a mistake in the wording of my original post. I'm not referring to light traveling at c through a shorcut, I'm questioning whether or not c is truly variable. I think that by objectively watching a photon zoom through the universe, you would actually watch it accelerate and decelerate as it passed through gravitational fields. Or, maybe, it would remain constant, therefore moving faster or slower than c in relation to the objects around it, enduring the same gravitational forces. I don't know. I'm a biologist with a crazy question that my friends can't answer and virtually zero background knowledge. Haha

I expect that I am missing something that disproves my theory, so if you know something I don't, PLEASE prove me wrong: I just watched the episode of "through the wormhole" where they discussed the possibility of faster than light travel. In the episode, various people were proposing the idea that the speed of light was not constant throughout the universe, but instead, light was capable of moving faster, depending on its proximity to a cosmic string, a photon sized superhighway that snakes throughout the universe following the path of a photon released from the big bang. This is a counter solution to the cosmic inflation theory that solves the problem of how energy could be equally dispersed over the universe, despite originating at one point and being restricted to the speed of light. My question is two-fold: First, is it possible that the speed of light CAN be affected by increasing the starting velocity, but that the difference in total velocity would be imperceptible? Afterall, what's an extra 50 mph from a moving car, compared to the speed of light? Second, space-time dictates that the rate of time varies depending on gravity and velocity. Imagine that the universe was like an infinite number of televisions in a row and some of the televisions were playing normal speed, some slow motion, and some fast forward, varying due to gravity. As a beam of light moved from television to television, would the speed of the photons vary according to the local speed of time, or would it remain constant regardless of the local time, meaning it would go relatively faster in the slow motion sections and relatively slower in the fast forward sections? In either case, wouldn't the speed of light be relative to location, gravity, and base velocity? Any and all help would be appreciated. Sorry for being a little longwinded.