this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

He also discovered that the speed of light equals c.

[–] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 17 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Where c is defined as the speed of light

[–] TheRealLinga@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago

And that's why we take vitamin C!

[–] Kvoth@lemmy.world 36 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

Uh, that discovery actually predated Einstein. He simply explained how the speed of light was constant for all observers

To be more accurate actually, he and his first wife explained it

[–] DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works 12 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

You mean Mileva Marić and her husband?

[–] Kvoth@lemmy.world 1 points 56 minutes ago

I was blanking on her name. Sadly she is almost never given the credit she deserves

[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

Einstein proved time is relative just so he could take credit for it

[–] niktemadur@lemmy.world 9 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, but is it a wave or a particle, eh, Einstein? Answer that!

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 4 points 7 hours ago

Well, he did get a Nobel price for saying it's a particle.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 17 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

I'm reasonably sure that Einstein's breakthrough was more that he assumed light only travels at the speed of light and the all the equations worked.

Every experiment since has confirmed it.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 19 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

Technically everything moves at c (the speed of light) through spacetime, all the time. Most objects that have mass spend the majority of their motion in the time part, and thus move relatively slowly in space. If an object moves fast in space (where fast is a significant fraction of c) then it moves noticeably slower in time because the total spacetime vector value is always c.

Photons, being massless, do not move through time at all, and move through space at c.

[–] diaphanous@feddit.org 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

To add to this, this is always relative to an observer. If an object moves fast in space compared to you then it moves slower in time compared to you.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 10 points 8 hours ago

That'll break a few brains. To elaborate with an example: From the perspective of a photon, it's "life" is over as soon as it begins. Even though it takes about 8 mins for a photon to travel from the sun to the earth from our perspective, no time at all has passed for it.

(Correct me if I misspoke.)

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 3 points 7 hours ago

The other way around. Experiments said that light always moves at C and he deduced what follows from that for space time.

[–] workerONE@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Any speed that light travels is the speed of light

[–] Elgenzay@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 hours ago

The real breakthrough

[–] LouNeko@lemmy.world 35 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

And it is remarkably consistent at doing that.

[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 14 points 9 hours ago

Relatively consistent.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 9 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, but light always travels at the speed of light, regardless of its speed. It travels at c in a vacuum.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 5 points 6 hours ago

Light is never late, nor is it early, it arrives precisely when it means to.

[–] niktemadur@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

Put a monocle on him and make it The Speed Of Causality.

[–] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 12 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Camera: *flash*

“Fuck you photons, next time. Again.”