International Journal of Innovative Research and Development

Abstract

Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity postulates that the speed of Light is the upper limit - beyond which nothing can travel, so that, the essential relation between cause and effect will be maintained. Contrary to this irrefutable physical law, controversies about the speed of Light exist among the scientists; the final solution for this most discussed topic in the Physical Sciences is yet under debate. The present Speed of Light (299,792 km/sec) was determined in the year 1983 based on the measurement of a Laser beam, and accordingly, it is thought that Light from the Sun takes about 8.3 minutes to reach our Planet Earth. There are much dissimilarity between a Laser beam and the Sunlight. Laser Light originates from a two-dimensional flat surface of a narrow cylindrical tube and travels in the form of a beam - retaining the same Intensity, whereas Sunlight emanates from the three-dimensional spherical surface of the Sun; obviously, the Light emanated from the spherical Sun will not travel in the form of a beam, but only expand away from all around the spherical surface of the Sun - concurrently decreasing the Intensity. As the distance of a receptor increase, the Intensity of Sunlight obtained by the receptor decreases accordingly. We can measure the Intensity of Sunlight as “per unit area”, but it is not possible with a Laser beam; this is because Laser is a mono-chromatic Light, while the Sunlight is poly-chromatic. This shows that the speed of Sunlight cannot be decided by measuring the speed of a Laser beam. Therefore, we need to find out the “actual process” with which the Sunlight makes contact with the Solar Planets, so as to reconcile the existing discrepancies on the speed of Light.

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