A Childs Mind Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 What is the speed of darkness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane_alien Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 there isn't one as darkness is not an entity but the absence of an entity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 Darkness must be pretty fast, it always gets there before the light! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyrisch Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 How many hotdogs can a world-class eating competition champion not eat in a minute? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Childs Mind Posted April 10, 2009 Author Share Posted April 10, 2009 How many hotdogs can a world-class eating competition champion not eat in a minute? what ever is left on his plate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Henry Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 When you turn on a light, darkness gets out of the way faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackson33 Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 jackson33 Veteran Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 1,178 darkness??? ---------------------------------------- in responding to so many i find myself wondering why light, light speed and is so finite in many explanations. could "darkness" be something other than the absence of light? if so, couldn't it have a speed? even light as we know it, is not required for life. many things grow and live deep in the oceans where no light has ever been. it is sustained from heat with in the planet and what that heat creates. that heat was not caused from any light or effects of light. couldn't a planet exist in dark space, with life. mass creates heat from with in, not necessarily from outside sources? couldn't a planet in this darkness with an atmosphere maintain a temperature suitable for most life, even that of earths inhabitants? i understand our science is based on the affects of our sun on earth with reference of green leaves to solar power, but take out planet earths core and atmosphere, there is no life. .......................................................... The above is from another forum, a few years back which received quite a few replies...What was interesting is the apparent accepted idea that darkness is an absence of light or an effect what we visualize from Electromagnetic Energy, then a reasonably small portion of the scale. No doubt, at least in my mind, is that if our visual concept of light was somehow different, then light as we understand it, could be darkness and darkness could be light. Distance stars then appearing as black spots in a sea of light as that energy traveled to this other concept. I know none of this is interesting to you, but I was looking for opinions on resistance to energy limitation to speed/velocity, that darkness could be this resistance, an entity so to speak, rather than an absense... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowThatWeKnow Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 What is the speed of darkness? Light and darkness travel at the same speed. This can be observed when turning a light on or off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyrisch Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Light and darkness travel at the same speed. This can be observed when turning a light on or off. But darkness doesn't move. It 'gets out of the way' in the same way empty space does when you move through it. I tried to point out the ridiculousness of the concept with my hotdog-eating analogy, and ACM pretty much hit the nail on the head: "Whatever is left on his plate," in other words, wherever light hasn't reached yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowThatWeKnow Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 But darkness doesn't move... That may depend on what definition of "dark" and "move" you use. Does a shadow move? I probably should have put a smiley with my post as I was having fun with what some would think a silly question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyrisch Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 That may depend on what definition of "dark" and "move" you use. Does a shadow move? I probably should have put a smiley with my post as I was having fun with what some would think a silly question. No, shadows don't move. The obstruction which causes the shadow does, allowing the darkness to again 'make way' for light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airbrush Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Darkness is simply the absence of light. Light moves at light speed and when it is gone darkness replaces it at light speed. Light comes and goes at light speed, and so does darkness. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cameron marical Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Darkness is simply the absence of light. Light moves at light speed and when it is gone darkness replaces it at light speed. Light comes and goes at light speed, and so does darkness. well put. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samtheflash82 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 measuring the speed of darkness would be like trying to measure the amount of cold something has. its like saying you have $3. how much money do you not have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowThatWeKnow Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 We can measure how fast darkness appears or disappears. You can move towards or away from a state or condition and darkness is a state or condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samtheflash82 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 We can measure how fast darkness appears or disappears. You can move towards or away from a state or condition and darkness is a state or condition. but the result you get for measuring how fast darkness appears or dissapears, if you were accurate wouldnt that be the speed of light? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowThatWeKnow Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 but the result you get for measuring how fast darkness appears or dissapears, if you were accurate wouldnt that be the speed of light? Yes, that is what I said in post #8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane_alien Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 its like saying you have $3. how much money do you not have? this is probably the closest thing to a decent analogy about it that we have, although there is an absolute value on how much you don't have. i'd like to add the following to the above 'And how fast don't you have it?' For the more observant of you you will notice this doesn't make sense. lack of money doesn't have speed. well, neither does darkness. it is merely the absence of something and therefore cannot have properties such as speed. you don't wonder how fast a 'not-car'(my attempt at turning cars into light where a car is a photon and a not-car is darkness or everything else) goes because it doesn't exist. there is no entity to be called not-car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowThatWeKnow Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Darkness moving is no more out of line then space expanding IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airbrush Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 ...neither does darkness. it is merely the absence of something and therefore cannot have properties such as speed.... Darkness is merely the absence of light, but if you set up a lazor on the Moon, focused on a sensor here on Earth, and turned it on and off at regular intervals, let's say three seconds on, three seconds off, the darkness between the light pulses would arrive at exactly the same speed as the light. Darkness is an aspect of light, so it follows the rules of light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now