Name: Alexander
Status: other
Age: 40s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2001-2002
Question:
How does light move with no means of propulsion? I
understand that light is a form of pure energy and can be harnessed to
our needs, and that it has no physical mass so therefore it has no
inertia but how and why is it moving? If light is not moving is it light?
Replies:
Alexander,
We do not know why the universe works the way it does. We do not know why
the speed of light must be what it is. We do not even really know what light
is. We know many of its properties. Physicists try to create a model of
the universe that does not contradict any measurements that have been made.
As for why the experiments produce the measurements we see, we can only
derive properties of the universe that predict those measurements. We
cannot know why these properties happen to exist.
As a more simple example, we do not know why Newton's Law
{force=(mass)x(acceleration)} is true. When we work on deeper theories, we
mold them to agree with Newton's law. They do not tell us why things are as
they are: they help us predict how specific events will turn out before
they occur. As more experiments are done, the theories become more
accurate. Our resulting predictions become more precise, more reliable.
Science provides an understanding of what to expect, but not of why the
universe is designed as it is.
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