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From: jsw@hou2h.UUCP (J.SOLTES)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Lightspeed
Message-ID: <683@hou2h.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Nov-84 16:24:16 EST
Article-I.D.: hou2h.683
Posted: Fri Nov  9 16:24:16 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Nov-84 21:06:45 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 19

<Nothing is foolproof. Fools are too ingeneous!>

>  The postulates were inspired by the fact that light waves propagate in
> a vacuum (as predicted by Maxwell's equations), which is really a fairly
> strange thing for waves to do -- normally waves are simply disturbances
> (compression/expansion) of the media through which they propagate.

Which reminds me of something else that has been bothering me since
high school physics: if light does not propagate by 'disturbing' a
medium, why does light travel at different speeds through different
substances? (i.e., why does light refract through a lens or a prism
and why do you get the illusion of a 'broken' pencil when you stick
one in a glass of water?)
				John Soltes
				AT&T Consumer Products
				hou2h!jsw

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
 Go to school. Get a little knowledge. Live dangerously."