Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site talcott.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittvax!decvax!genrad!wjh12!talcott!gjk From: gjk@talcott.UUCP (Greg J Kuperberg) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: Re: "big bang" a big bust? Message-ID: <162@talcott.UUCP> Date: Tue, 4-Dec-84 12:04:01 EST Article-I.D.: talcott.162 Posted: Tue Dec 4 12:04:01 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 8-Dec-84 04:48:55 EST References: <85@decwrl.UUCP> <10800012@uiucdcsb.UUCP> Organization: Harvard Lines: 25 > It would seem that information transmission is not necessarily bound by > the properties of light. Any comments? > > Arch - uiucdcs No, it's the other way around. Information transfer has certain limits; for example, that information cannot travel faster than c. Light, as a carrier of information, is also bound to this speed. A vacuum is a "perfect" medium for electromagnetic information transfer, so light in a vacuum travels as fast as it can---c. Since this is a good way to measure c, the quantity was originally defined this way. A good definition A.E. (after Einstein) would be: C (in meters/second) is the conversion factor between one meter and one second, just as 1.609 is the conversion factor between one mile and one kilometer. --- Greg Kuperberg harvard!talcott!gjk "Madam, there is only one important question facing us, and that is the question whether the white race will survive." -Leonid Breshnev, speaking to Margaret Thatcher.