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Re: [Phys-L] acceleration of light to c



If there's a problem with light being born at high speed, there's the same
problem in general with particle reactions where new particles are born
with nonzero speed.

Bruce


On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 11:38 AM, Bill Nettles <bnettles@uu.edu> wrote:

Talking about electromagnetic radiation and its constant speed in class
(college physical science), and a student asks, "Does light accelerate
[using the term in the sense of increasing speed, NOT GR reference frames
around massive objects] to that speed?"

I'm okay with thinking about changes in an EM field propagating without
increasing speed from 0 to c, and I can handle a wave being created
instantaneously with a certain speed, because a wave is a propagation of
change, but how do we handle talking about photons appearing
instantaneously with speed c? Is it because a photon is merely a local
manifestation of the field? Are there photons in a non-zero but static
field?

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