Is light's speed c constant?

[DanTrentfield]

Optical doppler shift

should help indicate

if c is NOT constant.

 

Hasn't light's speed value

been recorded differently

throughout the years (decades)

(e.g. CRC HoP&C=Handbook of Physics & Chemistry)?

 

1. But at

St Andrew's University:

Professor Bonnell's

astronomy students

(were given a task, that)

measured a "semi_anual"

doppler_shift

of star light.

 

Explaination: (overview)

http://supportto.michelsonexperiment.com

 

Bonnell's task sheet: (4 pages)

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~bds2/ltsn/planetary.rtf

 

Anti_Thesis:

 

2.

Maxwell predicted

Michelson experiments

would fail,

because the (2 bidirectional) delays would match (on earth);

& (he=Maxwell) suggested (1_way) extraterrestrial observations

(e.g. of planets, moons, stars)

would confirm earth's speed v

affecting light's speed c.

 

Michelson's mirrors (5 cm wide)

were wide enough

to maintain reflection

inspite of the v/c deflection (ratio)

(+/-2.2 cm at v~30 km/s, path length D~11 m; but "divided by 8" mirrors!)

so (almost=virtually) perfect cancellation

was guaranteed.

 

The (light) beam path

should have been

ab1a1; NOT

aba1

in his (=Michelson's, pg 335) Fig 2 1887 paper,

due to Huygen's wave front principle.

 

(I.e. Straight up, diagonally down;

NOT diagonally up, diagonally down:

for a 90 degree incident,

& <90 degree reflection

wrt the b mirror.)

 

3.

The significance

is enormous

for relativity (if),

because Einstein's SR

is based on 2 simple assumptions:

light_speed's constancy;

& the Fitzgerald_Lorentz contraction

used to maintain assuming constant c.

You make one huge assumption: Humans are perfect at measuring. You make another huge assumption: Scientists in the in eras when there was nothing to drink but beer weren't drunk (Or at least tipsy) when they measured. Finally I want to say this, Constants are very well defined and tested hundreds of thousands if not millions of times over the course of centuries, While in some cases things in science may be wrong, constants are almost always right because of the sheer amount of things they are used for, because they are constantly measured and tested.

Edited May 25, 2017 by DanTrentfield