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Speed of dark	2	10.00%
Speed of darkness	4	20.00%
something else..	14	70.00%
Total:	20 votes	100%

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Yorick
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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Out of my skull, back in five minutes
Posts: 1435

quote:
Originally posted by maddog
Let's use a speed of light we can quantify, it takes ~8 minutes for the sun's rays to reach Earth. If the sun were to be snuffed out, we would have eight minutes of light before darkness fell upon us.

We'd also have 8 minutes before we knew it was snuffed out. Though I bet the planet would have frozen over by then, since light is the visible portion of the sun's radiation and has a shorter wavelength than some of the other stuff. (or is that longer wavelength. damn, I should've brought an umbrella to the beach.)

quote:
Originally posted by maddog
Isn't that first particle behind the last ray of light travelling at the same speed as the light rays? And if that particle is not "darkness", what is it?

Hydrogen.

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08-21-2002 06:38 AM

ToolkiT
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 1883

quote:
Originally posted by Yorick

Hydrogen.

nope, no particles in space.... just an empty void...

It is very hard for humans to understand the concept of an empty void... we feel the need to have 'something'

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08-21-2002 06:45 AM

MarkEagle
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

quote:
Originally posted by ToolkiT
It is very hard for humans to understand the concept of an empty void... we feel the need to have 'something'

Everyone with a Springboard slot knows what that's like...

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08-21-2002 11:46 AM

Doggy
Member

Registered: May 2000
Location: Cleveland, Ohio 44067
Posts: 242

quote:
Originally posted by Yorick
We'd also have 8 minutes before we knew it was snuffed out. Though I bet the planet would have frozen over by then, since light is the visible portion of the sun's radiation and has a shorter wavelength than some of the other stuff. (or is that longer wavelength.

Is this true? Would the planet freeze in less than 8 minutes if the sun was snuffed out? You mean all these years I wondered how long the oxygen on the planet would last or how long we could survive on batteries if the sun closed up shop and now I am told that these concerns are irrelevant?

My life's pondering has come to an end!

BTW, kudos to Mark, good thing I didn't have a drink in my mouth or it would have been coming out my nose! And that really hurts when it is carbonated.

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08-21-2002 02:38 PM

Toby
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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 3034

quote:
Originally posted by maddog
Is this true? Would the planet freeze in less than 8 minutes if the sun was snuffed out? [...]

Sounds pretty accurate. The catch being, of course, that any event big enough to snuff out the sun would probably wipe us out at the same time. The sun's snuffing itself out would, of course, be preceded by its expansion (which would swallow us or suck us in), so in such an event, freezing would be the least of our concerns.

08-21-2002 04:52 PM

Yorick
Member

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Out of my skull, back in five minutes
Posts: 1435

Originally posted by Toby
Sounds pretty accurate. The catch being, of course, that any event big enough to snuff out the sun would probably wipe us out at the same time.
I was trying to avoid that idea, but yeah.
If for some reason the sun just suddenly ceased to put out radiation, however ... (insert more pseudo-science mumbojumbo here)

The sun's snuffing itself out would, of course, be preceded by its expansion (which would swallow us or suck us in), so in such an event, freezing would be the least of our concerns.
that's actually scheduled to happen in about 15,000 years or so. so, better pack your bags now!

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08-21-2002 05:25 PM

Toby
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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 3034

quote:
Originally posted by Yorick
[...] that's actually scheduled to happen in about 15,000 years or so. so, better pack your bags now!

Where's the 15,000 coming from. I know it'll happen eventually, but that's the earliest number I've heard so far.

08-21-2002 05:44 PM

sowens
Member

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 284

Wow, this post is still active.

First to BobbyMike: no apology necessary. For some reason I usually come across as combative when I'm just being inquisitive. Should have used a smiley, and I apologize for not doing so.

Yorick: Yes there are different wavelengths of light coming from the Sun, but they should all travel through a void at the same speed. Of course, modern science believes that the Universe really isn't a void, but I think it's a safe to assume a void over the distances we're talking about.

I also thought the Sun had about 5 billion more years to go before going nova, and that the Earth would be swallowed somewhere around the 4 billion mark. Ah, who cares. I won't be worrying about getting a tan by that time anyway.

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08-21-2002 05:54 PM

BobbyMike
Member

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: "Children are a gift from God, they are a reward"
Posts: 1049

So are you all saying that I can wait until next year to use my vacation time at my friends villa in Jamaica?

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08-22-2002 01:58 AM

Yorick
Member

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Out of my skull, back in five minutes
Posts: 1435

quote:
Originally posted by Toby
Where's the 15,000 coming from. I know it'll happen eventually, but that's the earliest number I've heard so far.

I pulled it out of my ... hat.

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08-22-2002 02:00 AM

Madkins007
Member

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Nebraska- the Good life
Posts: 695

quote:
Originally posted by Yorick

We'd also have 8 minutes before we knew it was snuffed out. Though I bet the planet would have frozen over by then, since light is the visible portion of the sun's radiation and has a shorter wavelength than some of the other stuff. (or is that longer wavelength. damn, I should've brought an umbrella to the beach.)

Hydrogen.

I don't think the Earth would freeze in the 8 minute interval, assuming that whatever happened left our atmosphere intact- it serves as a decent insulating blanket, or else 1/2 of the Earth would freeze over every night.

Even if the atmosphere was blown away, I am not sure the planet would freeze over in the 8 minutes- the thermal sink of dirt and water would probably protect it for a bit. No one would be here to appreciate it though!

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08-22-2002 03:56 PM

septimus
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Them Twin Cities
Posts: 1758

quote:
Originally posted by ToolkiT
nope, no particles in space.... just an empty void...

Not so much with the empty void. There's particles in them thar .. voids. There are some voids, sure, but there are a lot of particles out there, more than you'd think (dark matter...)

Also, Nature so abhors a vacuum that it creates particles out of literally nothing to fill it. Matter and Anitmatter separate and pop into existence, swirl about, then collide and destroy themselves. This happens everywhere all the time, but is easier to see in space. This is how we are able to notice black holes actually emitting particles. Particle pairs that pop into existence at the event horizon. One gets sucked in, one escapes.

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08-23-2002 02:06 PM

septimus
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Them Twin Cities
Posts: 1758

Oh, and since the Speed of light is a constant in the universe, perhaps the only one, clearly the opposite of the Speed of Light is Human Female. (*Ducks*)

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08-23-2002 02:07 PM

jhappel
Member

Registered: May 2001
Location: NY metro area
Posts: 219

quote:
perhaps the only one, clearly the opposite of the Speed of Light is Human Female. (*Ducks*)

I think you better do more than just duck!!!!

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08-24-2002 11:21 AM

hesspaul
Member

Registered: Mar 2002
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 4

the opposite of the speed of light

... is the sound of silence ...

09-03-2002 12:59 AM

ToolkiT
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 1883

Re: the opposite of the speed of light

quote:
Originally posted by hesspaul
... is the sound of silence ...

Excelent that's the best one so far

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09-03-2002 01:01 AM

MarkEagle
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

quote:
Originally posted by hesspaul
the sound of silence ...

Is silence a sound?

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Hmmm...

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09-03-2002 01:40 AM

hesspaul
Member

Registered: Mar 2002
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 4

quote:
Originally posted by MarkEagle
Is silence a sound?

Is light a speed?

09-03-2002 01:45 AM

MarkEagle
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

quote:
the opposite of the Speed of Light is Human Female.

...

the sound of silence ...

These are mutually exclusive, aren't they?

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09-03-2002 01:46 AM

Toby
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 3034

quote:
Originally posted by MarkEagle
Is silence a sound?

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Hmmm...

If a tree falls on Forrest Sawyer and no one's around, does he make a sound?

09-03-2002 02:30 PM

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