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Re: lawless physics (fwd)



On Tue, 17 Mar 1998, Igal Galili wrote:

There is nothing intrinsically special about light per se other than the
fact that it "happens" to travel at the one speed that is invariant (the
limiting speed if you will) in the Lorentz transformations.

The intrinsically special about light per se is the fact that it has zero
mass. Any other physical entity with zero mass will inevitably move with
the same speed (remember neutrino mass and cirality debate?). That far
within the special theory of relativity.

I'm sorry that I was (once again) too cryptic. My putting "happens" in
quotes was my (insufficient) attempt to acknowledge that the fact I was
referring to is *not* simply an accident. Nevertheless, my response was
intended to answer Jim's query about the possibility of a different
relativity for fish which, I think, is the result of confusing the
invariant velocity with the velocity of the signals that our eyes respond
to, i.e., "light."

For more interesting reading on this subject, see

N.David Mermin, "Relativity without Light", AJP, V52, 119, 1984.

John
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