speed of light - Page 3

you · 09-13-2007, 01:29 AM

> What if I created a pointer in Fortran 77? What would
> happen then?

Fortran 77 would have a pointer

SpaceTiger · 09-13-2007, 01:50 AM

> > What if I created a pointer in Fortran 77? What would
> > happen then?
>
> Fortran 77 would have a pointer
>

Well, there ya go.

The 9th Sage · 09-13-2007, 03:22 AM

> What if I created a pointer in Fortran 77? What would
> happen then?

I would exclaim...."Argh! Fortran!"
http://www.xanga.com/zeldadd

My blog...the perfect cure for curry withdrawl!!</a>

SpaceTiger · 09-13-2007, 03:52 AM

> > What if I created a pointer in Fortran 77? What would
> > happen then?
>
> I would exclaim...."Argh! Fortran!"
>

Sadly, that exclamation is all too common in my line of work.

you · 09-13-2007, 02:23 PM

> Sadly, that exclamation is all too common in my line of
> work.

What do you do that still uses Fortran?

SpaceTiger · 09-13-2007, 02:29 PM

> What do you do that still uses Fortran?

Astrophysics, it's still the golden standard for many of the professors here. Students have to learn it if they want to use their advisor's codes.

And it's not just Fortran, it's Fortran 77. <img src=smilies/errrr.gif>

I've taken a shining to it, though. It's not so bad when you run it with Perl scripts.

you · 09-13-2007, 05:02 PM

> Astrophysics

Ah, no wonder you sound like an authority on special relativity

The 9th Sage · 09-14-2007, 02:57 AM

> What do you do that still uses Fortran?
>
> Astrophysics,

Ah, at least it's something important.
http://www.xanga.com/zeldadd

My blog...the perfect cure for curry withdrawl!!</a>

Leldorion · 09-14-2007, 07:27 AM

But what if we http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/18/sc...c6e007&ei=5070stopped</a> light? Would that make us the protagonists in this horror story? Or is stopped just another word mistakenly used for trapped in the article?

Edited by Leldorion on 09/14/07 02:41 AM.

SpaceTiger · 09-14-2007, 12:50 PM

> But what if we stopped light? Would that make us the
> protagonists in this horror story? Or is stopped just
> another word mistakenly used for trapped in the article?

Yeah, this is a famous popular science result, but it's mostly just a curiosity. The speed of light actually depends upon the properties of the medium through which it's traveling and, technically, my slasher analogy only applies in a vacuum. But the refractive index in air is close to one, so it's basically the same. The slowing or stopping of light waves has no bearing on special relativity -- the speed of light in a vacuum, c, is still the fundamental constant speed that you can't reach.