Quote:
Originally Posted by livephenox
Unlike matter that moves in a single direction (Lenth) light has more than one direction(lenth and width). So how do you propose covering an ever increasing area at the same rate without aceleration? I'm always willing to learn. I was under the asumption that the sum of all vectors might be relavant.
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I'm not sure what you mean when you say light has more than one direction, or that it covers an ever-increasing area. A photon travels in a single direction, and it always travels at the same speed, c*. Since its speed never changes, it simply doesn't make any sense to speak of light "accelerating".
* As I noted before, the speed of light seems different in different mediums. But as I understand it, this change in apparent speed is due to the number of times the photon gets absorbed and then re-emitted. When a photon is absorbed, there is a non-zero delay before it gets re-emitted. So, the denser the material, the more times the photon will get absorbed/re-emitted, which means it will take more time to get through the material, resulting in a slower apparent speed. But really, the photon is always traveling at c when it is traveling between particles.