Re: OT: Speed of light [was Re: Why not a Python compiler?]

En Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:01:31 -0200, Doug Morse <morse@xxxxxxxxx> escribi�:

So, showing of my physics ignorance: I presume then that this means that
light, say from the sun, is actually sending particles to the earth, since the
space between is mostly vacuum? Or is there enough material in the
near-vacuum of space for propogation to occur?

Before the famous Michelson-Morley experiment (end of s. XIX), some physicists would have said "light propagates over ether, some kind of matter that fills the whole space but has no measurable mass", but the experiment failed to show any evidence of it existence.
Then it was hard to explain light propagation as a wave (but Maxwell equations appeared to be so right!), and previous experiments showed that light was not made of particles either. Until DeBroglie formulated its hypothesis of dual nature of matter (and light): wave and particle at the same time.

--
Gabriel Genellina

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