Questions for people to answer:

[Darkensky]

That is a great question, that would be speed of light Squared.

[Cole]

lol.  good one.  First, you cannot drive anything the speed of light.  If "it" which you were driving had mass, it would be unable to achieve that speed without losing its mass first.  I can make you lose your mass, but you wouldn't like it. 

Now lets say your car is traveling really, really fast.  Like 110 m.p.h., and then you turn on your lights.  Does the light travel faster than 299,792,458 m/s?  No.  But, speed is relative, and scalar.  The light is emitted from your headlights that fast.  To someone who is in a different frame of reference/space, i.e. standing still or traveling the opposite direction, the speed component of the photon?s velocity will be observed to be higher.  However, the speed is really just 299,792,458 m/s. 

Remember that Newtonian physics applies only somewhat to quantum physics.  Also remember that the instant after the photon leaves the lighting element, the car tries to catch up to it.  To the photon, the car is basically stationary.

Consider sound waves (pressure, displacement of air).  When you go mach 2 in a  jet, at any given instant you cannot hear any sound propagated near you the instant you meet it.  However, if you talk to yourself, you can hear what you say.  So could anyone in the cockpit.  Without a radio.  Positional relativity.  Just like with the light.  If someone on the ground tried to hear you, they would hear you after you were gone, but I don?t think anyone can really yell that loud.

[Paladin_Godfather]

so..... Joey was really going out with Stacey while Jessica was having his kid!!!! man!! and Tony's long lost sister is actually his ex-wife!! my god that all makes sense... oh im sorry cole... i make up my own stories when i get bored and pass out and bleed from the nose and almost die from reading you elaborate and almost nonsensical post........... but thanks for answering!! i get it... its all relative speed

[Darkensky]

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2005/09/01/36162/Scientistsslowdown,speeduplightinfibre.htm

How about this!

[Paladin_Godfather]

they are french they probably lied

[Darkensky]

Well lets wait to see what cole egghead has to say!

Love his answers,

it brings things into light.. haha, oh that was lame.. get it light.. uhhh....

Also Cole takes the content that that avg person does not understand and makes it into a dr.seus book....

[Cole]

Well, this is really interesting and something I actually studied in college.  Not the photonics, the electromagnetic properties of materials.  These French guys are not lying, they are telling the truth. 

Take a crystalline material with a very specific ordering of atoms.   Engineer a specific nanostructure such that photons of certain wavelength or energies (however you want to call it, it?s the same thing) cannot pass.  This is called a band gap.  You can do this with electrons too.  You?re computer?s doing a shitload of this right now.  Pnp and npn band gaps are what make up solid state transistors. 

Anyway back to our silicone crystal with the specific nanostructure such that light cannot pass through it.  Now when you make this thing, dope it with specific defects in the crystal structure and viola!  you can guide the light into a channel, and can make it so that only certain wavelengths can do it.  This is what a wave guide is.

Now, take that same principle and make some microcavities (holes) in the waveguide.  Then photons will ?pool? in these cavities .  Put a bunch of these in an array, and you can slow the propagation of the pulse (since wavelength) and group (multiple wavelengths) velocities of light.

Optics and laser beams are fascinating?

[Darkensky]

So after time and mastery of this "Guided light" we should be able to store data and information on light and be able to use light as a sorce of information?

[Cole]

Yes.  The photonic equivalents of the pieces that make up a computer already exist.  Diodes, transistors, resistors (we just talked about that one) capacitors.  however, making them small will take some time.  Probably a very very long time.  The electro process people just came up with a new technology in their lithograph tool bag to go to even smaller circuit printing, so traditional fab is still alive for a while.  Everyone thought it had hit the wall, (so lets go dual core !  lol)  But using water as a dispersive media between the lens and the printing surface (for the lithography step) they can focus the light much, much sharper.  This is great!  8 GHz pentiums here we come! lol.  I wonder how you'd cool that.  Anyway, for the new theoretical minimum "wire size" you'd have to google, i don't know...

[Darkensky]

I think that is where the laser comes into play.   

[Cole]

see here you go.  here is where it all ties in.

electrons have mass.  flow of electrons through anything creates a lot of heat.

photons have no mass.  flow of photons through allowable media creates little heat if any.

[Darkensky]

Okay,

So back to the other idea, car with headlights...

----Strap a light on a photon , then you can go faster then speed of light!!

[Cole]

lol.  no.  light =  photon

[Cole]

yeah, so?  I can still beat you up, np.

[Cole]

don't make me drown you in my blood.  again.

oh and I've been lifting, so watch out beeotch.  walking through the woods picking tics off your ass won't make you stronger.

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